Theme of Friendship in The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Essay Sample)

What is a friendly relationship? What is considered a true, ideal friend? What is considered a close friend? These are questions asked by people every time in a friendship and sometimes the answer cannot be found. The book “The Nickel Boys” written by Colson Whitehead portrays this idea of an upstanding friendship. He writes about the importance of having a close friend that will help in challenging situations. He also introduces two characters Elwood and Turner, who became best friends while they were at the Nickel School. This school was intended for young criminal teens under the age of 18, who were sent there by the judge to get a so-called straight mind to be safe for the community. In the story that Whitehead has written, the depth and significance of the relationship between Elwood and Turner can be seen. Their established friendship helps portray how an ideal friendship is supposed to look like by staying devoted friends, never leaving each other behind, and honoring friendship.  

Being a high-quality friend is ideal, but staying a devoted friend is more important than just being a conventional friend. In the book, Elwood and Turner stay devoted friends by establishing trust between themselves. Turner in the story does not trust anyone in the Nickel except Elwood, so he only tells Elwood his background story. Elwood and Turner finished painting the railing and Elwood “told Turner how he got pinched and sent to Nickel- “Man, that’s a raw deal”-but Turner never talked about his old life” (93). Not only did their true friendship consist of telling each other their backstories, but also showing sacrifices they would make for each other. During the inspection of the Nickel School, the boys were forced to be at their best behavior and not spoil the issues that were going on inside the school. Elwood did not like that idea, so he wrote a letter to one of the inspectors. Even though he wrote the letter he could not get the letter to the inspectors, so he asked Turner to take it to him because “Turner had a license to roam, but Elwood didn’t...” (183). Being a friend that is trustworthy and that comes in clutch is willing to do things for a friendly relationship is considered a devoted friend, and that is what Elwood and Turner portrayed in the story.  

Being a devoted friend, like Elwood and Turner, is an adequate characteristic to have in a friendship, but having a companion that will never leave a friend behind in situations is also critical to friendship. Turner was always there for Elwood when it was hard for him. After the white house beating that Elwood got, he lay in the Nickel Hospital for a few days to recover. Instead of waiting for his friend to get better and return to normal Nickel life, Turner has “eating some soap powder to make himself sick, an hour of a stomachache for a whole day off” (75) to lay beside Elwood to keep him company and entertain him. Another moment in the book that could be seen in their friendship is when Turner broke Elwood free from his death. They were escaping the Nickel grounds when Elwood asked, “you said don’t take anyone with you,’... “on the run” (198). Turner explains why he did not leave alone because “you’re dumb, and I’m stupid” (198). In both scenarios in the book, it is portrayed that Turner would never leave his friend Elwood behind in inconvenient situations.  

Although being a friend that never leaves devoted friends is fundamental, but honoring each other’s friendship is also essential in a friendly relationship. Which in the book Turner and Elwood honor the friendship that they have established in the Nickel School. When Elwood and Turner were escaping from the hunting posse of Nickel School, Elwood got shot and died, but Turner kept running and escaped. Turner ran to the diner and “the owner of the dinner asked him his name, two weeks out of Nickel, he said, ‘Elwood Curtis.’” (202) The reason Turner used Elwood’s name is that was the “first thing that popped into his head. It felt right” (202). From that point on Turner “used the name from then on when anybody asked, to honor his friend” (202). After the death of Elwood “in some ways Turner had been telling Elwood’s story ever since his friend died...” (204) he hoped that he “turned into a man he thought Elwood would have been proud of” (204). In the book, it is shown that the honor of friends is particularly important to Turner so that is why he switched his name and tells not his story but Elwood Curtis’s story. 

The bonding of friends in a friendship is what keeps a person going further. Which in the book Elwood and Turner portray this idea of an ideal friendship, how a friendship should be seen as. Turner and Elwood set an example of a perfect friendship by never leaving each other behind, honoring each other in their friendship, and being loyal friends.