View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In what month did Mr. Hill visit Elwood in order to tell him about the college program for high school students?

2. 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?

3. Boys punished within the White House were ordered to lie down on a blood-stained mattress and to hold onto what object?

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

5. In what suburb of a large Florida town did Elwood live with his grandmother Harriet?

Short Essay Questions

1. What examples does the narrator use to back up the claim that Harriet was rarely able to "make proper goodbyes to her loved ones" (70)?

2. In what way did the grounds of Nickel surprise Elwood upon his arrival and what is this detail's significance?

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

4. For what purpose does Whitehead allude to Life magazine within Chapter 2?

5. What was ironic about Harriet's punishment of Elwood upon learning that he had participated in a protest?

6. In what way does the theme of collectivism arise within the Prologue of The Nickel Boys?

7. What disappointing news did Blakely reveal to Elwood about educational opportunities at Nickel?

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

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

10. Who was Mr. Hill?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Whitehead’s messages about guilt and responsibility within The Nickel Boys. Focus especially on events such as Harriet’s untimely death one year after her grandson Elwood’s demise.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,190 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample