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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What parts of the Nickel Boys' bodies were whipped with the strap referred to as "Black Beauty" (68)?

2. How many minutes did each Nickel Boy get inside the communal showers each day?

3. When Elwood Curtis saw what kind of trees over the shoulder of the reporter on television, he knew he would have to return to the Nickel Academy?

4. Which two classes did Elwood miss on his very first day of educational instruction at Nickel?

5. What machine was used to mask the screams of the boys as they were punished within the White House?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way does Whitehead intertwine the motif of dreams with the theme of escape within Chapter 7?

2. How does Whitehead use personification to depict the way that Harriet tried not to get her hopes up about the progress the black community might make in the wake of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision?

3. Describe Elwood's family, as it is presented in Chapters 1 through 3.

4. How many boys were incarcerated at Nickel at the time of Elwood's arrival and in what way was the campus divided into two?

5. What Christmas present did Elwood receive in 1962 that the narrator described as "the best gift of his life" (11)?

6. In what way does Whitehead employ foreshadowing about Superintendent Spencer's character?

7. In what way was Elwood's family history intertwined with the Richmond Hotel in Tallahassee?

8. What happened to prevent Elwood from attending his first class at Marvin Griggs Technical?

9. Who was Mr. Hill?

10. What major discovery is described in the Prologue as having led to widespread media coverage focused on the Nickel Academy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose an object from The Nickel Boys, such as the strap, the record album containing Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches, or some other symbolic object and discuss its overall meaning and its connection to themes within the text.

Essay Topic 2

Sensory details are used frequently by Whitehead in order to create vivid pictures of the reformatory school central to the narrative of The Nickel Boys. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used serve Whitehead’s creation of an effective novel setting.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Whitehead's treatment of truth, lies, and hypocrisy within the text of The Nickel Boys.

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