The Nickel Boys: Part Three, Chapters 11–12

by Colson Whitehead
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, based on historical events, traces the harrowing story of two boys sent to a Florida reformatory school in the 1960s.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue and Part One, Chapters 1–3; Part Two, Chapters 4–7; Part Two, Chapters 8–10; Part Three, Chapters 11–12; Part Three, Chapters 13–16 and Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bodega
    small shop selling groceries, especially in a Hispanic area
    The way New Yorkers complained about summer heat, on the subway, in the bodega, made him snicker ever since he got here.
  2. vestibule
    a large entrance or reception room or area
    This time whenever he left the vestibule downstairs, the stench was a thicket—he wanted a machete to hack through it.
  3. transient
    one who stays for only a short time
    Even if he scavenged furniture like a transient, he put down roots.
  4. untoward
    not in keeping with accepted standards of what is proper
    He’d seen her curse out this muscle-bound turkey who whispered something untoward as she passed on the street, she got up in the dude’s face, but a rat made her squeal like a little girl.
  5. opine
    express one's view openly and without fear or hesitation
    He opined that maybe it was a dog, but she wasn’t going back today and he was glad to have her.
  6. discretion
    freedom to act or judge on one's own
    A typical sentence fell between six months and two years, but the administration had the power to confer a legal discharge before then at its discretion.
  7. capricious
    determined by chance or impulse rather than by necessity
    Still, the law was corrupt and capricious in various measure and sometimes a boy strolled out through what passed for divine intervention.
  8. abet
    assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing
    You could die. Of “natural causes” even, if abetted by unhealthy conditions, malnutrition, and the pitiless constellation of negligence.
  9. wend
    direct one's course or way
    His story wending its way through the years.
  10. gait
    a person's manner of walking
    Freddie Rich identified candidates by their gait and posture, administration files strengthened the argument, and their treatment by the other boys provided final confirmation.
  11. fetid
    offensively malodorous
    When he couldn’t take another step he hid under a lonesome gray house and squatted in the fetid water of the crawl space.
  12. predation
    an act of plundering and pillaging and marauding
    As it happened, the Apalachee hounds were deployed elsewhere, attending to the escape of three Piedmont convicts, and Freddie Rich didn’t report Clayton’s disappearance for twenty-four hours, scared as a trapped rat that his predations would be uncovered.
  13. debasement
    a change to a lower, less respected state
    Had Clayton ever been alone? In the house on that dead-end street in Tampa, his brothers and sisters were ever on top of him, all of them crammed into the three rooms of the rickety shotgun. Then Nickel with its communal debasements.
  14. wayward
    resistant to guidance or discipline
    But the students came from all over the state, Pensacola to the Keys, and most families had far to travel if they wanted to see their wayward sons.
  15. covenant
    a signed written agreement between two or more parties
    Most afternoons they played Monopoly, their game a conspiracy of house rules, obscure covenants, and revenge.
  16. ebb
    fall away or decline
    Then he was up for hours, in a spell, agitated by rickety thoughts and weakened by an ebbing of the spirit.
  17. complacent
    contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions
    He was like one of those Negroes Dr. King spoke of in his letter from jail, so complacent and sleepy after years of oppression that they had adjusted to it and learned to sleep in it as their only bed.
  18. bluster
    be gusty, as of wind
    A wind easing after blustering for as long as you could remember.
  19. harried
    troubled persistently, especially with petty annoyances
    She was young, maybe twenty-five years old, with a round, open face. Harried yet graceful as she juggled Burt’s baby sister, who squatted in her lap hooting at the bugs.
  20. adamant
    impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, or reason
    Mr. Marconi had kicked in another hundred after meeting with him, which was out of character, yes, but Mr. Andrews had been adamant and persuasive.
Created on Wed Jul 01 13:39:17 EDT 2020 (updated Wed Jul 01 14:01:01 EDT 2020)

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