The Nickel Boys When Elwood Curtis, a Black Boy Growing up in 1960S

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

The Nickel Boys When Elwood Curtis, a Black Boy Growing up in 1960S

The Nickel Boys By Colson Whitehead When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s scepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Things to think about Here are some questions to think about. Feel free to answer as many as you like, or to come up with your own discussion points if you prefer. There is space below to write comments. 1. The prologue sets up the modern-day discovery of the horrors which took place at the Nickel. How did this affect your reading of the story? 2. Elwood knows he is “as good as anyone”. How does this shape his story? 3. Elwood repeatedly returns to one of Martin Luther King’s mantras, “Throw us in jail and we will still love you.” Do you think there is a moment where he abandons this? 4. Elwood and Turner are real opposites in outlook and character. What do you think this signifies, especially given the book’s ending? 5. What does Turner learn from Elwood? 6. The boys maintain a sense of humour in the face of terrible trauma and mistreatment. What do you think this signifies? About the author Colson Whitehead is the author of 7 novels including The Underground Railroad, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017. His other books include The Noble Hustle, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, and The Colossus of New York. He is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a recipient of the MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. He lives in New York City. You can make any other notes about the book on the back of this page. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Reading Guide and Book Club Questions
About This Guide The questions, discussion topics, and suggestions for further reading that follow are designed to enhance your group’s discussion of The Underground Railroad, a triumph of a novel by Colson Whitehead About This Book Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom. Cora’s journey is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre–Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day.
[Show full text]
John Henry Days 1St Edition Kindle
JOHN HENRY DAYS 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Colson Whitehead | 9780385498203 | | | | | John Henry Days 1st edition PDF Book A sort of fantasia around the fictional release of a commemorative stamp honoring the folk hero John Henry, the book convincingly imagines a wide range of American lives--all the people associated with the festivities planned to launch the new stamp, including journalists, publicists, a small town's officials and citizens, assorted guests such as a stamp collector and the daughter of a collector of John Henry-ana , and John Henry himself. Inquire if you need further information. Back to home page Return to top. Published by Liguori Publications He traces this from the early period of musical commodification of sheet music to records to Broadway plays and the same with the field of writing in the realm of publicity and marketing with the rise of the Internet. May 21, Chris O'Brien rated it liked it. More information about this seller Contact this seller 5. Of course, "The Intuitionist" and " Apex Hides the Hurt " were so brilliant that most novels are weaker than them. It may be that the soiling is from smoke - not from tobacco - but from having been exposed to wood smoke. The lines "So much depends upon a red pickup truck, filled with crackers," and "a runway model dares to eat a peach" both made me laugh at their cleverness, but it was a hollow laughter, as they served no purpose other than act as a knowing wink between over-educated author and over-educated reader. When I was a young man.
[Show full text]
Colson Whitehead's the Nickel Boys NOTES
American Literature SUMMER 2021 READING ASSIGNMENT: Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys NOTES The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead – ISBN: 978-0345804341 All students will be required to purchase a hard copy of the novel to read over the summer and for use during class discussion. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Zisselsberger via e-mail: [email protected] ABOUT THE AUTHOR Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, which in 2016 won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Award and was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, as well as The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and The Colossus of New York. He is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a recipient of the MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. He lives in New York City. ABOUT THE NICKEL BOYS In this Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling follow-up to The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow- era Florida. When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.
[Show full text]
Ralph Ellison and Colson Whitehead
The exclusive license for this PDF is limited to personal website use only. No part of this digital document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted commercially in any form or by any means. The publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this digital document, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained herein. This digital document is sold with the clear understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, medical or any other professional services. Chapter 5 AN INTERVIEW WITH DIANA SHEETS: TWO AUTHORS IN SEARCH OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE: RALPH ELLISON AND COLSON WHITEHEAD Keywords: Baldwin, Cane, doubling, Ellison, Hughes, Invisible Man, Native Son, The Intuitionist, Toomer, Whitehead, Wright MFS: Dr. Sheets, let’s begin by talking about the black experience and the Harlem Renaissance. Why do we need these themes as “backdrops” so to speak? DS: The trauma of slavery and its repercussions permeate the black experience in our country. Slavery began in the United States in the 17th century during the colonial era and extended through the Civil War. During Reconstruction and its aftermath, many repressive social and economic conditions continued by means of Jim Crow—institutional segregation that extended broadly to encompass schools, hotels, restaurants, commercial businesses, public facilities, and potentially every aspect of public life. Indeed, the influence of Jim Crow extended into the North and throughout many parts of the country.
[Show full text]
“The Underground Railroad Reanimates the Slave Narrative
Discussion Questions 1. How does the depiction of slavery in The Underground Railroad compare to other depictions in literature and film? 2. The scenes on Randall’s plantation are horrific — how did the writing affect you as a reader? 3. In North Carolina, institutions like doctor’s offices and museums that were supposed to help “black uplift” were corrupt and unethical. How do Cora’s challenges in North Carolina mirror what America is still struggling with today? 4. Cora constructs elaborate daydreams about her life as a free woman and dedicates herself to reading and expanding her education. What role do you think stories play for Cora and other travelers using the underground railroad? 5. “The treasure, of course, was the underground railroad … Some might call freedom the dearest currency of all.” How does this quote shape the story for you? 6. How does Ethel’s backstory, her relationship with slavery, and Cora’s use of her home affect you? 7. What are your impressions of John Valentine’s vision for the farm? 8. When speaking of Valentine’s Farm, Cora explains “Even if the adults were free of the shackles that held them fast, bondage had stolen too much time. Only the children could take full advantage of their dreaming. If the white men let them.” What makes this so impactful both in the novel and today? 9. What do you think about Terrance Randall’s fate? 10. How do you feel about Cora’s mother’s decision to run away? How does your opinion of Cora’s mother change once you’ve learned about her fate? 11.
[Show full text]
The Ironies of Colson Whitehead
This is a repository copy of Freedom to Struggle : The Ironies of Colson Whitehead. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/134651/ Version: Published Version Article: Kelly, Adam Maxwell orcid.org/0000-0002-3446-1847 (2018) Freedom to Struggle : The Ironies of Colson Whitehead. Open Library of Humanities. Freedom After Neoliberalism. ISSN 2056-6700 10.16995/olh.332 Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This licence allows you to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as you credit the authors for the original work. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Freedom After Neoliberalism How to Cite: Kelly, A 2018 Freedom to Struggle: The Ironies of Colson Whitehead. Open Library of Humanities, 4(2): 22, pp. 1–35, DOI: https://doi. org/10.16995/olh.332 Published: 02 October 2018 Peer Review: This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of Open Library of Humanities, which is a journal published by the Open Library of Humanities. Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
[Show full text]
Read Together Events & Discussion Guide Read Together Palm Beach County “One Book, One Community”
Read Together Events & Discussion Guide Read Together Palm Beach County “one book, one community” PURPOSE: The Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County is working to involve thousands of adults throughout Palm Beach County in reading the same book at the same time. This community reading campaign will entice adults who can read, but often don’t, to get involved in the habit of reading again. It will also promote community dialogue and engagement as citizens gather together to discuss key themes. Members of the Read Together Palm Beach County Committee in 2019. HISTORY: Based on the success of similar campaigns in Seattle and Chicago, the Campaign Coordinating Committee conducted Read Together Palm Beach County biannually from 2002 to 2016. 2020 Read Together Palm Beach County Building on the excitement, momentum and success of the 2016 campaign, the Literacy Coalition and the Read Together Committee Book Selection Committee: decided to coordinate the initiative annually. In each campaign, Laurie Gildan, Chair, Greenberg Traurig, P.A. thousands of adults read and discuss the chosen book. Stacy Alesi, Lynn University Sharon Hill, Literacy Coalition Board Member Tina Maura, Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach Deborah Nix, Retired Educator Carol Rose, The Palm Beach Post/Palm Beach Daily News Tom Streit, Attorney (retired) Christina Wood, Freelance Writer & Editor 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 Helena Zacharis, Palm Beach State College Campaign Committee: Sharon Hill, Chair, Literacy Coalition Board Member Aurora Arthay, Palm Beach County Library Craig Clark, Boynton Beach City Library Lisa Hathaway, Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach 2012 2014 2016 Lynn Kalber, Literacy Coalition Board Member Carol Rose, The Palm Beach Post/Palm Beach Daily News Tom Streit, Attorney (retired) Christina Wood, Freelance Writer & Editor Copies of the book are available at 2017 2018 2019 2020 The Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County for a $10 donation.
[Show full text]
A Literary Chameleon
A Literary Chameleon 32 September - October 2016 Illustration by Andrew MacGregor Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 Colson Whitehead ’91 has written a zombie-apocalypse novel, a coming-of- age novel set in the world of the black elite, a satiric allegory following a nomen- clature consultant, a sprawling epic tracing the legend of the African American folk hero John Henry, a suite of lyrical essays in honor of New York City, and an account of drear and self-loathing in Las Vegas while losing $10,000 at the World Poker Series. That work has won him critical acclaim. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002, and has been a finalist for almost every major literary award; he won the Dos Passos Prize in 2012 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013. In an era when commercial pressure reinforces the writerly instinct to cultivate a recognizable “voice,” his astonishingly varied output, coupled with highly polished, virtuosic prose, makes Whitehead one of the most ambitious and unpredictable authors working today. He has gained a reputation as a literary chameleon, deftly blurring the lines between literary and genre fiction, and using his uncanny abilities to inhabit and reinvent conventional frames in order to explore the themes of race, tech- nology, history, and popular culture that continually resurface in his work. In a country where reading habits and reading publics are still more segregated than we often care to admit, his books enjoy a rare crossover appeal. His first novel, The Intuitionist, is a detective story that regularly turns up in college courses; the zombie thriller Zone One drew praise from literary critics and genre fiction fans alike;Sag Harbor, about black privileged kids coming of age in the 1980s, was a surprise bestseller.
[Show full text]
Cultural Reproduction in Contemporary American Fiction
CULTURAL REPRODUCTION IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FICTION By ALEXANDER JAMES PAUL MORAN A Thesis Submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy School of English, Drama, & American and Canadian Studies College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham June 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis traces the ways in which David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, and Colson Whitehead react against the historical, institutional, and formal limits imposed upon contemporary fiction and culture. It argues that in order to counteract such constraints, they embrace and co-opt older forms and values as enabling for their fiction. In order to map these processes and relationships, I read these five writers as engaging with and reflective of the concept of cultural reproduction. Building largely from the definitions of cultural theorist Raymond Williams, the lens of cultural reproduction is a means to acknowledge what Williams terms the ‘limits and pressures’ of the contemporary – such as the inheritance of postmodernism, creative writing programs, technological changes, and commercial demands – and also to outline the ways these writers display agency in reaction to such limits.
[Show full text]
Library of Congress Magazine-September/October 2020
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 COPYRIGHT OFFICE AT 150 Inside Inspiring Creativity, Empowering Creators Serving Congress And the Public Plus Deposits of Gold What Copyright Protects The Original Lady Liberty FEATURES ▪ The National Archives holds this original manuscript of 08 10 14 the Copyright Act of 1790, passed by Congress and Is it Copyrightable? Deposits of Gold Inspiring Creativity signed into law by President Why the law protects Copyright submissions American arts and culture George Washington. National a novel but not a selfie preserve a trove of rare have long-standing ties Archives and Records taken by a monkey. items from history. to the copyright system. Administration LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE ▪ On the cover: The seal of the U.S. Copyright Office consists of a capital C in a circle with a stylized eagle with a shield perched on the lower limb of the C. The seal is used on official documents, such as the certificate of registration and certified documents. David Rice LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE DEPARTMENTS SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020 VOL. 9 NO. 4 Mission of the 2 Trending Library of Congress The Library’s mission is to engage, 3 How Do I? inspire and inform Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of 4 Serving Congress knowledge and creativity. 5 Page from the Past Library of Congress Magazine is issued bimonthly by the Office of 5 Communications of the Library 6 Online Offerings of Congress and distributed free of charge to publicly 20 Curator's Picks supported libraries and research institutions, donors, academic libraries, learned societies and 22 Extremes allied organizations in the United States.
[Show full text]
Sven Birkerts, "Literature: Snapshots from the Bridge"
Literature: Snapshots From the Bridge By Sven Birkerts One of the more interesting things about writing criticism for many years is that from time to time I am called upon to revisit a particular author or development, at which point I usually discover not only how much my tastes and inclinations have changed, but also that my subjects have refused to stay embalmed in the mummy-wrap of what I used to think. This has been borne out most vividly recently, as I Some of the new faces on America's literary scene.(Jason Schmidt) have been asked to venture a concise overview assessment of the state of American literature -- fiction and poetry -- in the new millennium. Ever the overworked opportunist, I returned first to a reflective survey essay I had written just over a decade ago entitled "The Talent in the Room." The intent of that piece had been very similar -- to spotlight the major trends and talents in the world of literary fiction. My hope was to salvage at least the foundation and frame of the former structure. Alas, as soon as I began reading I saw that it was not to be. Somehow, while I'd had my eye on the foreground action, reviewing this and that writer, the background had quite steadily -- and surprisingly -- shifted. In that earlier essay, bouncing off polemics by Norman Mailer (his own 1959 essay, "Evaluations -- Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room"), as well as Tom Wolfe's rabble-rousing "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast: A Literary Manifesto for the New Social Novel," published in Harper's in 1989, I had concluded that contemporary American fiction was in a state of retreat.
[Show full text]
Howland Collection List
Howland and Company Llewellyn Howland III Established in 1978, Howland and Company is an antiquarian maritime bookseller and marine art dealer. It also deals in modern literary first editions and English literature. Operating as a closed shop the company has issued 98 mail-order catalogs. Llewellyn Howland III, sole proprietor of Howland and Company, worked for 20 years in trade publishing. From 1964 through 1977 he was senior editor at Little, Brown in Boston, where he edited the work of many ranking historians and biographers, among them James Thomas Flexner, Jean Edward Smith, John Wilmerding, Page Smith, Jonathan Spence, John E. Mack, Mary Beth Norton, and Nobel laureate Robert William Fogel. A Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Howland has served as a trustee of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Mystic Seaport Museum. He is the author of several books, most recently of No Ordinary Being, a biography of poet, yacht designer, and aviation pioneer W. Starling Burgess. The following is a priced listing of some of the representative stock of Howland and Company Antiques, Architecture, Art, and Photography Boor, Allison,et al. Philadelphia Empire furniture. Hanover, (Boor Management/UPNE, 2006). Pp.592; color ills.30.5cm.Fine in fine d.j. First edition. $50 Bradford, Richard. The importance of elsewhere. Philip Larkin’s photographs. (London), Francis Lincoln, (2015). Pp. 256;halftones. 25cm. Fine in fine d.j. First edition. $30 Caponigro, Paul. New England days. The photographs of…. Boston, Portland Museum/Godine, (2002). 24.5cm (oblong). Fine in fine d.j. First edition. Signed by author. [Dow, A.
[Show full text]