Nickel Boys Guide

The fire lit up the swamp like a second sunrise. Boys scattered into the dark. Some made it to the highway. Some were caught. Turner was shot in the leg, dragging Elwood through the sawgrass. “Go,” Turner gasped, pushing him toward a dirt road. “Tell them what happened here. Tell them about the vegetable patch. Tell them about the Nickel.”

Their friendship is the engine of the novel. It allows Whitehead to explore two competing philosophies of survival. Does one resist injustice loudly, even if it means being sent to "The White House" (the solitary confinement torture chamber) or killed? Or does one wait, survive, and escape to tell the story? Nickel Boys