Making and Remaking of Self in Racial Landscape in Colson Whitehead‘s The Nickel Boys

Abstract

This thesis explores identity while making and remaking the self in the racial landscape in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys from a poststructuralist perspective. The novel encapsulates the story of Elwood Curtis, a black American individual, who stands in the fundamental grammar of ‘acting right.’ Despite his vehement effort in signifying his existence, he encounters brutality in American society in the beginning and at the Nickel Academy at the end. At last, he becomes the victim of white dominance and institutional brutality. In this connection, this research explores three distinct questions: What does the novel aspire to represent while showing the brutality of the Nickel Academy? Why does the protagonist change his philosophy in understanding his black identity? How does Elwood shape his identity amid such hardship, and how does he get involved in a perpetual process of ‘becoming’? To answer these questions, this research employs a post-structural perspective, primarily focusing on Foucault’s notion of dispositif (apparatus). It also incorporates Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s understanding of race and racism to scrutinize the racialized discourse. It claims that the identity is involved in a perpetual course of ‘becoming,’ though the discursive regime persistently universalizes one's identity coercively. The institutional forces impose authority in dictating the fate of the individual based on the prejudices they incorporate. The research concludes that The Nickel Boys depicts the racial discourse as an institutionalized system with coercive force, which problematizes the identity of Black Americans and demands their recognition. Keywords: Brutality, Discourse, Power, Recognition, and Resistance