Prologue & Chapters 1–3

Summary: Prologue

The prologue introduces “a Nickel Boy who goes by the name Elwood Curtis,” now an adult living in New York City. He doesn’t talk about his time at the Nickel Academy, a reform school in Florida. He has never visited, and he hasn’t made any attempt to connect with other former students, even when they began sharing their traumatic stories after the school closed down five years prior. However, when he learns that a “secret graveyard” has been discovered by college archaeology students, he realizes that he must return to Florida and tell his own story.

Part One

Summary: Chapter 1

For Christmas in 1962, Elwood receives an album of recorded speeches given by Martin Luther King, Jr., which he listens to repeatedly. Elwood is being raised by his grandmother, Harriet, who doesn’t let him listen to popular music and keeps a close eye on him. Elwood is a straight-A student. Since the age of nine, Elwood has spent every afternoon in the kitchen of the Richmond Hotel, where Harriet works and where his mother and great-grandmother worked too. At first the older men in the kitchen play games with him, including staging races to see who can dry dishes the fastest. Later, kitchen staff use the game to take advantage of Elwood’s kind and trusting nature. When the staff find a set of encyclopedias left in a room by a traveling salesman, they trick Elwood into beating them in a dish-drying competition, using the encyclopedias as the reward. The staff let him haul the heavy boxes home on the bus, not revealing that the pages are blank in every volume but one. Feeling used and hurt, Elwood doesn’t go back to the hotel.

Summary: Chapter 2

After the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that schools can’t be segregated, Elwood is always looking for signs of integration and change. His grandmother Harriet isn’t as hopeful. Harriet and Elwood live in Frenchtown, a Black neighborhood in Tallahassee, Florida. At 13, Elwood gets a job at Marconi’s Tobacco & Cigars, a convenience store run by an Italian man named Mr. Marconi. Elwood helps with the store and spends time reading about the Civil Rights Movement in Life magazine. Mr. Marconi overlooks it when young people steal candy, but one day Elwood tells two boys from the neighborhood to return the candy they have taken. On his way home, the boys ambush him and beat him up, giving him a black eye. 

Elwood’s grandmother and Mr. Marconi don’t understand Elwood’s “lack of sense”; they want him to avoid conflict with people. Listening to the speeches by Dr. King, Elwood understands that if he turns a blind eye to people committing wrongdoings, it compromises his dignity and sense of self-worth. He feels even more connected to Martin Luther King, Jr., because he told his six-year-old daughter Yolanda that she couldn’t go to Fun Town amusement park because she was Black, and six years old is the age at which Elwood’s parents abandoned him.

Summary: Chapter 3

In his junior year of high school, Elwood meets and is mentored by a new teacher, Mr. Hill. The students receive textbooks that were previously used by students at a white high school, who filled the pages with racial slurs. Mr. Hill has the students black out the slurs with markers before they use the books. Mr. Hill actively participated in the Civil Rights Movement in Florida. He connects history to the current moment. Recognizing Elwood’s interest in the Civil Rights Movement, Mr. Hill gives him a copy of James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son

That summer, local college students hold protests to integrate the local movie theater. Elwood joins in and Mr. Hill introduces him to other students from Lincoln High School. Elwood’s grandmother disapproves of his participation in the protest and takes away his record player for two weeks, but Elwood starts to dream about what his life will be like in college. That summer, Mr. Hill invites Elwood to participate in a program taking free college courses while still a senior in high school. His grandmother is proud of him and Mr. Marconi gifts him a fountain pen. The college is seven miles south of Tallahassee, and Elwood hitches a ride with a Black man named Rodney. Halfway there, the police pull them over and Elwood learns that Rodney has stolen the car.

Analysis: Prologue & Chapters 1–3

Even as an adult, Elwood Curtis attempts to repress the childhood trauma he experienced while at Nickel Academy; he doesn’t see any value in rehashing the past or reliving the violent events that occurred. Talking about the events won’t change them, and it won’t make things better. The government had chosen to deal with abuse allegations at the school in a similar fashion—that is, until the discovery of the “secret graveyard.” With the unearthing of the graveyard, the government is forced to examine what happened, and Elwood, in turn, must confront his past trauma. The fact that the school’s secrets remained hidden for so long illustrates how difficult it can be for those who have been abused or neglected in society to be heard and recognized, especially if they are from a marginalized group. The discovery of the graveyard by the public brings Elwood’s experiences, and the many stories from other former students, out of the shadows.

When young Elwood receives the record album of Martin Luther King’s speeches, an interest in the Civil Rights Movement begins to take hold. He internalizes King’s idea that a Black person is just as good as a white person despite the obstacles imposed on them by the racist society they live in. Elwood’s personality as an optimistic, hardworking child juxtaposes the knowledge that he will eventually end up at a reform school for as-yet unknown reasons, increasing the dramatic tension. When Elwood works in the kitchen of the Richmond Hotel, his determination to win the encyclopedias in the “competition” against his co-workers demonstrates his optimistic belief that hard work and determination can overcome anything. The fact that the encyclopedias are blank signifies that this isn’t always the case. This is when Elwood first becomes aware of his own naiveté and the fact that the world can be an unfair place, and this knowledge makes him less trusting of the world and other people.

However, even after his experience with the blank encyclopedias, Elwood doesn’t totally lose his sense of hope and optimism, at least not when it comes to the possibility of integration. When the U.S. Supreme Court rules to end segregation, Elwood’s hopes are bolstered, and, unlike his grandmother, he believes the world will not always be unjust. Elwood’s optimism contrasts with his grandmother’s disillusionment, which is grounded in her own personal experiences with racism. When Elwood gets a job at the convenience store at age thirteen, it signifies his continued belief in the benefits of hard work. Although Mr. Marconi isn’t Black, Elwood doesn’t experience any discrimination at his hands and feels that his work ethic is appreciated. Elwood saves half his paycheck for college every week, suggesting his hope for the future is strong. 

Like his innate sense of hope, Elwood’s sense of justice runs deep. He feels that he cannot look past the neighborhood kids stealing candy, even if it could lead to a confrontation. Elwood believes that turning a blind eye would compromise his own values; however, Elwood’s grandmother and Mr. Marconi don’t possess the same urgency to pursue justice, as they are more interested in self-preservation. They believe Elwood should be wary of standing up for justice in situations that could lead to conflict. 

Mr. Hill is the first person that Elwood meets who embodies the values of Martin Luther King, Jr. by actively working against racism rather than simply bearing it. Taking time to black out the racist slurs in their textbooks allows the students in Mr. Hill’s class to feel empowered. To Elwood, Mr. Hill represents the possibility of change. When he gives Elwood a copy of Notes of a Native Son, Elwood recognizes that another person believes in the same things he does. When Elwood decides to participate in a protest at the local movie theater, his grandmother disapproves because she knows what can happen to Black men and women when they stand up to racism. Elwood, however, hasn’t experienced the same types of consequences and therefore doesn’t have the same fear of repercussions. Elwood’s focus on justice at this point overrides any fear he might possess, and his participation in the protest makes him part of a community fighting for civil rights rather than merely an individual standing up against racism on his own.

Elwood’s hard work appears to pay off when he gets the opportunity to take free college courses as a high school senior. In a cruel twist of fate, Elwood accepts a ride from a man in a stolen car and becomes a victim of circumstance when the man is pulled over by the police. Because Elwood is a young Black man in the South, the chances of him escaping this situation unpunished are unlikely even though he had nothing to do with the theft. This tragic happenstance, and the actions of the racist justice system, will reverberate throughout the rest of his life.