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Chapter 16 & Epilogue
Summary: Chapter 16
After the White House beating, Elwood is taken to a secret cell, an empty, dimly lit room on the third floor of Cleveland dormitory. Although solitary confinement is illegal, it has existed at Nickel since the school was built. Elwood is left in the cell for three weeks, with Spencer and Hennepin returning at one point to beat him. During his isolation, he thinks of the impossible instructions of Martin Luther King, Jr.: to love those who harm you. Elwood becomes disillusioned and feels alone and outcast.
One night, Turner shows up with Elwood’s clothes, and the two escape. They make their way to town, where they take bikes that they once cleared out of a basement as part of Community Service. They ride all night and through the next day to get to Tallahassee. Just outside town, Turner hears a vehicle behind them and turns to see that it is the Nickel Community Service van. He and Elwood jump off their bikes and run through a field as Hennepin and Harper chase after them with rifles. Hennepin shoots first and misses. Turner turns around to see Harper shoot and kill Elwood, and watches as Elwood falls with his arms outstretched. Turner keeps running, leaving Elwood behind.
Summary: Epilogue
Turner, who started going by Elwood Curtis’s name two weeks after he escaped from Nickel, is checking in for his flight to Tallahassee, Florida. It’s 2014, and he’s returning to Nickel to talk about what happened to him and to Elwood. The night before his trip, Turner shows his wife Millie two articles about Nickel, and admits that he was sentenced there as a teenager. He also tells her that he took Elwood’s name after Elwood was murdered. Millie and Turner talk late into the night about his horrific experience and the suffering he endured, crying and holding each other. Turner tells Millie that his first name is really Jack, but says no one except his mother has ever called him that.
Turner flies to Tallahassee, thinking about the other former students who are going to tell their stories at a press conference. Turner will be the only Black student to testify, and no one knows he is coming. He checks into his hotel, a Radisson, and orders a hamburger at the restaurant, reading on the menu that the hotel used to be called the Richmond. Turner doesn’t remember that this is the hotel where Elwood used to sit in the kitchen as a child, watching the dining room and waiting hopefully for the day when a Black person would be able to eat there.
Analysis: Chapter 16 & Epilogue
In solitary confinement, Elwood finally finds himself losing the hope to which he has clung throughout his life. The words of Martin Luther King, Jr. no longer offer the solace they once did, and this is the first time Elwood truly gives in to utter hopelessness. He recognizes that his act of defiance by turning in his accounts of abuse made no difference; in fact, Spencer is now emboldened, knowing that Elwood’s attempt to draw attention to the abuses at Nickel fell flat. When Turner decides to escape with Elwood, it demonstrates that he has abandoned his individualistic mentality and was moved by Elwood’s commitment to standing up for justice. Although Elwood and Turner escape on their bikes, they soon learn that truly escaping Nickel is impossible as the Community Service van chases them down, which represents the difficulty that all Nickel Academy students have escaping the trauma of Nickel even as adults. The fact that Harper shoots Elwood is significant because Harper used to treat Turner and Elwood with something resembling friendliness while working with them in the Community Service van. Here, however, he proves himself to be just as evil as the rest of the staff. Elwood’s shooting creates questions about the novel’s overall narrative since several chapters have shown Elwood in the future.
In the Epilogue, these questions are addressed as the narrator explains that Turner is the one who lived, and that he began using Elwood’s name to honor his friend. When Turner tells his wife about his past at Nickel, it indicates that he is finally ready to confront the trauma he buried for so long. Keeping his trauma and abuse secret from Millie and others only served to further isolate him. When Turner decides to confess his trauma to his wife, it solidifies their bond and brings them closer together. Millie cannot relate to the specific abuses that Turner suffered, but she can relate to experiencing racism, and she supports Turner as he begins to process his abuse. When Turner decides to testify against Nickel, he pays homage to Elwood’s beliefs that standing up to injustice is important. He also shows respect for all his former classmates by doing what’s right and exposing the abuses that occurred. When Turner sits at the restaurant in the hotel where Elwood used to work, he fulfills Elwood’s wish to see the hotel restaurant desegregated.
