The Nickel Boys Lesson Plan

How does the narrative focus shift off of Elwood in the second half of Part 2?

The last few chapters of Part 2 contain a shift within the narrative voice that plays a key role in the novel’s development. Whereas the first half of the novel was focused primarily on Elwood, it begins to focus more and more on Turner, revealing his interior thoughts, motives, and memories as well as Elwood’s.

In one of the final scenes of Part 2, for example, the reader only learns from Turner that Jaimie is lying about not having poisoned Earl, since it is Turner’s internal voice—narrated in the third person—that remarks how Jaimie’s smile gives away the fact that he is lying. Although...