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Chapters 9 & 10
Summary: Chapter 9
Every year at Nickel, there’s a boxing match between the best Black student boxer and the best white student boxer. This year, a large, violent bully named Griff will box on behalf of the Black students, and although he bullies them, the Black students all cheer for Griff. A victory by Griff is seen as a victory for all the Black students. Turner is hiding in the warehouse when he overhears Superintendent Spencer telling Griff to lose the fight on purpose by pretending to be knocked out in the third round. When Elwood asks what the consequences will be if Griff doesn’t lose, Turner shows Elwood two large oak trees with iron rings embedded in them. He tells Elwood that when Spencer says he’ll take someone “out back,” he means that the person will be shackled between the two trees and beaten to death.
Director Hardee and other white supporters of the school come to watch the boxing matches and bet on the fight. Griff goes up against Big Chet, a formidable white opponent. The fight is evenly matched, but Griff doesn’t fall in the third round. When he is declared the winner, Griff yells to Spencer that he thought they had fought only two rounds so far. That night, Griff is taken “out back” and beaten to death. The students convince themselves that Griff won on purpose, and that he escaped. However, his body is one of those dug up in the unmarked cemetery 50 years later.
Summary: Chapter 10
The Nickel boys prepare for the Christmas Festival, an annual event that draws people from miles around, who pay to see the lights and holiday displays on campus. The white boys do the big projects and string the lights, and the Black boys paint and fix displays. Meanwhile, Desmond has found a green can of powder that the boys are told is horse medicine. Desmond, Jaimie, Turner, and Elwood think about slipping some into a houseman’s drink at the staff Christmas luncheon. The day of the luncheon, Elwood and Turner are doing Community Service, and Harper leaves them downtown alone. Elwood and Turner walk the streets, and Turner says that if he were to run away he’d go alone, steal clothes in town, then go south and east, which would be unexpected. When they get back to Nickel, they learn that Earl has been taken to the hospital, vomiting blood. They think that Jaimie poisoned Earl, even though he denies it. Earl lives and Spencer blames Earl’s weak constitution, so the boys escape suspicion. That night Turner and Elwood look at the Christmas light display and feel satisfied.
Analysis: Chapters 9 & 10
The yearly boxing match draws a parallel between the racial conflicts inside Nickel Academy and those that are going on outside of Nickel during the Civil Rights Movement. Inside Nickel, although all students are treated horribly, Black students are treated much worse. The boxing match is the only time that Black students are given a chance to earn more respect than white students. It is a rare chance for Black students to experience resistance and triumph against white oppression. However, the fact that Spencer wants to force Griff, the Black boxer, to lose the match is also a metaphor for the enduring nature of white supremacy. Although Griff is the better fighter, he isn’t allowed to win. When he does win, he loses his life because of it. This indicates that even when Black individuals excel in a systematically racist society, they cannot get ahead or prosper. The system itself is constructed by white people to benefit white people ahead of anyone else.
Griff’s decision to win the fight despite the consequences positions him as a symbol of righteousness and resistance. It is also a slight against the white supporters of the school who bet on the rigged match to earn money off the Black students’ failures. Griff’s victory boosts the spirits of the Black students, but Griff pays for this with his life when he is taken “out back” and beaten to death. The fact that the students convince themselves that Griff escaped suggests that they are unable to fully accept the reality of their situation. Although they know what goes on in the White House and they know what happens “out back,” they do not want to believe that their beloved victor suffered such a cruel fate, and that such a fate could befall them too. Just as members of the public did not want to believe the ugly truth about Nickel before the secret graveyard was exposed, the students at Nickel don’t want to admit to themselves how bad things really are.
Imagining the possible poisoning of a Nickel Academy staff member unifies Desmond, Jaimie, Turner, and Elwood; this is the first time the four students appear to have formed a bond. Their fantasizing creates a feeling of camaraderie among them, like what Elwood felt with when he participated in the protests outside of the theater earlier in the novel. However, the culture of fear and uncertainty prevents the friends from actually taking action against a staff member. Jaimie is the only one who seems undeterred by fear, which causes the reader to wonder why he isn’t more fearful. When Elwood finds himself alone with Turner during Community Service, Turner again emphasizes his individualistic nature by saying he wouldn’t take another student with him if he ran away. This contrasts with Elwood’s nature as someone who believes in community. When Turner and Elwood return to Nickel and find out that Earl has been poisoned, it reinforces Turner’s point that camaraderie can lead to trouble since all the boys discussed the possibility of poisoning a staff member and now they all might pay the price. When Turner and Elwood bond over this dilemma and the beauty of the Christmas light display, it again recalls the feeling of Elwood bonding with other students during the Civil Rights protest.
