Answer:
A lot
Explanation:
Elwood Curtis is a teenage black boy living in Florida in the early 1960s, and the protagonist of The Nickel Boys. A determined young man, Elwood lives with his grandmother, who takes him with her to the hotel where she works. While she’s cleaning the rooms, Elwood spends his time in the kitchen, peering out at the hotel’s dining room and imagining what it would be like to see a black person sitting at one of the tables. Elwood is particularly interested in the Civil Rights Movement because the only record he owns is a recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at the Zion Hill Baptist Church in Los Angeles. During high school, Elwood works at Mr. Macroni’s cigar shop and reads magazines about the Civil Rights Movement, which is why he ends up admiring his new history teacher, Mr. Hill, who is an activist. Recognizing Elwood’s impressive determination, Mr. Hill helps him enroll in college classes, which he plans to take while finishing high school. On his way to his first class, though, he hitchhikes with a man who—unbeknownst to him—stole a car. Consequently, Elwood is arrested and sent to Nickel Academy, a reform school. At Nickel, it doesn’t take long before Elwood experiences the wrath of Spencer, the school’s superintendent, who brutally whips him for trying to break up a fight. This experience sends him to the infirmary, where his new friend, Turner, tells him that the safest way to get through Nickel is to simply keep to oneself, focusing only on earning enough merit points to “graduate.” Elwood initially decides to follow this advice, but when he hears that government inspectors will be visiting the school, he writes a letter to them outlining the institution’s egregious practices. Turner is against this idea but ultimately helps Elwood carry it out. That night, Spencer takes Elwood from his bed and beats him before putting him in solitary confinement. Several days later, Turner hears that Spencer is going to kill Elwood, so he helps him escape, but Elwood is shot and killed in the process.
