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Similes
Chapter Four
Explanation and Analysis—Nickel's Beauty:
In Chapter Four, Elwood arrives at Nickel Academy after being arrested and falsely accused of car theft. Although nervous about what awaits him at this reform school, he is surprised to discover that Nickel is aesthetically beautiful and well-kept—the exact opposite of the run-down horror show he’d expected. However, readers will soon learn that Nickel Academy does indeed hide immense horror within its shiny exterior. Whitehead's detailed and charming depictions of Nickel Academy's grounds thus exemplify situational irony:
He expected tall stone walls and barbed wire, but there were no walls at all. The campus was kept up meticulously, a bounty of lush green dotted with two-and three-story buildings of red brick. It was the nicest-looking property Elwood had ever seen—a real school, a good one, not the forbidding reformatory he’s conjured the last few weeks.
In the passage above, Whitehead uses situational irony to appeal to the reader’s sense of ignorance at this early point in the novel. Nickel Academy is beautiful on the surface, but it hides dark horrors within: horrors perhaps even enhanced by the false security its exterior exudes. Readers may assume, like Elwood, that he will enjoy life at Nickel Academy because it appears to be well-kept. After all, it is human nature to associate serene aesthetic beauty with at least some sense of safety and prosperity. However, Nickel’s exterior beauty is merely a front for its interior horror, as Elwood discovers when he moves into his broken-down dormitory and begins to receive senseless beatings. Ultimately, Whitehead's use of situational irony explores the unexpected contrast between Nickel's unassuming presentation and its ghastly reality.
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