"It's not how it's supposed to be."

[Matthew]

Hello Tepper Readers!

This discussion topic will cover what we've read from the end of Part One, through the end of Chapter Eight (page 96). (Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't made it this far yet.)

So, a lot has happened since our last discussion question. Elwood finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and is convicted of stealing a car (which he didn't do) and is sent to the Nickel Academy.

Elwood learns all too quickly what the Nickel Academy is about. Not only should he have not been sent to the "reform school," but Elwood is severely beaten for the "crime" of trying to break up a fight. We learn about Black Beauty, about the White House and its industrial fan, about what happens to boys there. Whitehead does a good job of building tension here - Elwood counting the blows, the number going up and up with each new victim, "Maybe there was no system at all to the violence and no one, not the keepers nor the kept, knew what happened or why."

While recovering from his beating, Elwood meets Turner in the hospital, a pragmatist of sorts, who becomes Elwood's friend and foil. At the end of Turner's hospital stay the two boys argue:

"It's not how it's supposed to be," Elwood said.

"Don't nobody care about supposed to."

This is one of the major tensions of the novel, and one of the major tensions in our society today; what should happen vs. the reality of what does happen. As we await our final election results, I’m sure a lot of us are thinking that maybe things should be different, maybe it shouldn’t be so close. We also shouldn't live in a world where a place like Nickel can exist, or where you can be murdered by those sworn to protect for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit bill, or selling cigarettes, or sitting in your home eating ice cream, or standing in your grandmother's backyard, or advising police you have a legal firearm, or selling CDs and DVDs...I could go on and on (this graphic tells more about all these stories and others). And yet, this does happen. This should not be reality but it is.

It's also in this section that Elwood joins the “Community Service” team and we learn that all of the food and medical supplies meant for Black children at Nickel are distributed throughout the town of Eleanor—the economy of the town literally runs on goods meant for Black children in the state’s care. We also meet Mrs. Davis, wife of the Eleanor’s fire chief, who uses Elwood and Turner’s slave labor to slowly renovate her home. For some reason her character irks me more than a lot of other people in the novel. I think it’s mostly because she likely feels like she’s being a good person and doing good things, pouring the kids lemonade, but her complicity in this massively messed up situation is incorrigible.

Finally, I love the metaphor of the eye exam that Whitehead uses, “’This or this’…Elwood never ceased to marvel how you could walk around and get used to seeing only a fraction of the world. Not knowing you only saw a sliver of the real thing.” Think of novels like The Nickel Boys as an eye exam, once we know more about our history and the world around us, we can’t help but view the world differently.

What’s on your mind?

[Matt]

For some reason, Mrs. Davis didn't bother me as a character because I immediately accepted that she saw Turner and Elwood a lesser than...which bothers me more than if I had your read initially, Matt. I think that's what this book brings out in me and also destroys me.

When Whitehead uses "this or this" I initially feel like I know what he's saying because I grew up around people where I thought I saw another, deeper layer of the system. But as soon as I think I know what's happening around me, I gain a deeper perspective where I realize I'm stilling living in a rose colored world.

[Matthew]

Matt wrote: "For some reason, Mrs. Davis didn't bother me as a character because I immediately accepted that she saw Turner and Elwood a lesser than...which bothers me more than if I had your read initially, Ma..."

Thanks for being the first brave soul to join in on this discussion, Matt. Yes, the "this or this" analogy proves itself time and time again. The more you learn, the more you're aware of how things could or should be different. That can get depressing, to be sure, but if you apply these learnings to your thoughts and actions, and share them with those you interact with, change can come. It's always slow-going, and sometimes it seems hopeless, but discussion like these give me hope, and knowing that people like you and the rest of the Tepper Readers will be future business leaders makes me believe that a better world is possible.