payment page
Elwood’s mother and father had lit out West and didn’t even send a postcard. What kind of mother leaves her kid in the middle of the night? . . . He made a note to save that as a low blow if he and Elwood ever got into a real fight. Turner knew his mother loved him. She just loved liquor more.
In Chapter 10, the reader gets a glimpse into Turner’s family and experiences, and how they have shaped him. Turner understands the cruelty of the world and is ready to protect himself at any time, physically or emotionally, as individual survival is more important to Turner than Elwood’s emphasis on community. Interestingly, when Turner learns about the way Elwood’s parents deserted him, he catalogues the information as a potential weapon in case Elwood ever becomes an enemy.
You can change the law but you can’t change people and how they treat each other. Nickel was racist as hell—half the people who worked here probably dressed up like the Klan on weekends—but the way Turner saw it, wickedness went deeper than skin color. It was Spencer. It was Spencer and it was Griff and it was all the parents who let their children wind up here. It was people.
Chapter 9 provides a clear contrast of Turner and Elwood’s worldviews. While Elwood is naïve and hopeful, Turner is deeply cynical due to the hardships he’s witnessed and experienced firsthand. Turner sees the worst in everyone, regardless of race. Turner understands the racist prejudices of the staff at Nickel, but he believes this wickedness and tendency toward violence exists in everyone. This belief causes Turner to mistrust nearly everyone in his life. Even when Elwood tells Turner of his plan to expose Nickel, Turner doesn’t believe it's worth pursuing due to his deep distrust in humanity.
Who spoke for the black boys? It was time someone did. Seeing the grounds and the haunted buildings on the nightly news, he had to go back. To speak about Elwood’s story, no matter what happened to him.
This quote from the Epilogue shows the change of heart Turner experiences decades after escaping Nickel and Elwood’s death. Throughout most of the novel, we see Turner’s cynicism and stoicism. Turner never believed in demanding justice in the face of abuse, only in individual survival. Now that the truth about Nickel has become national news, Turner feels compelled to share his and Elwood’s stories. Whether it’s to honor the memory of his friend or to actually bring the trauma and injustice to the light, Turner takes up Elwood’s cause in the novel’s final moments.
