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Madeline Pitts

2206 Prather Lane

Austin, Texas 78704

September 8, 2020

The Pulitzer Hall

2950 Broadway 

New York, NY USA 10027

Dear Pulitzer Prize judging board members, 

I am a junior at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders and I am writing to you to argue whether or not The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead deserved to win the 2020 Pulitzer Prize award. The author showed light on the very serious topic of injustice towards black people during the civil rights era through a very powerful and painful story. Although some may argue that the book was repetitive and predictable, it is clear that this horrid story about the injustices of the system deserved the Pulitzer Prize because not only did the author expose the sinister truths of what so many people had to face during that time, but also did an amazing job at structuring the story in an almost flawless manner. 

The Nickel Boys is a story about the abuse of black boys at a juvenile reform school in Florida during the Jim Crow era. The story starts off with an intelligent and idealistic young boy named Elwood who is determined to go to college and believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideals of love and equality. But Elwood’s dreams are crushed when he gets wrongfully accused of stealing a car and is sent to the Nickel Academy, a reformatory “school” full of racism, abuse, torture, brutality, and more. As Elwood adjusts to the hostile environment that he was sent to, he makes a friend, Turner, who has the exact opposite ideals as him. Turner is more jaded and believes that Elwood is naïve to believe that he could change anything. Elwood believes strongly in Mr. King’s words that the only way to fight hate is with love. “Throw us in jail, and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities after midnight hours, and drag us out onto some wayside road, and beat us and leave us half-dead, and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom” (MLK, 172). After a while, Elwood’s idealistic beliefs are challenged after he has to see and endure the horrible acts of torture, sexual abuse, vicious brutality, and corruption that happen at the Nickel Academy. “Elwood shook his head. What a thing to ask. What an impossible thing” (Whitehead, 173). The author does an excellent job of conveying the real truths of racism and discrimination that unfortunately are still prominent in today’s society. This is another reason why this book deserves the Pulitzer Prize because even in 2020 this story of injustice is a relevant theme in America. 

Additionally, the structure of the book is very well written. The book is rich with detail and has so many underlying themes in between the lines. I enjoyed the way the book was written, and the story line was executed well. Although The Nickel Boys won the fiction prize, it’s based on the true events that happened at the Dozier School for Boys in Florida which makes the story even more horrifying. Whitehead writes his story in a prose structure that is easy to understand, but it was nonetheless hard to read because of the heartbreaking story. 
Finally, this coming of age story had the most heart wrenching ending. Throughout the story, Elwood struggled with his ideals of speaking out and being the change like his heroes from the civil rights movement that he looked up to, or to keep his head down to avoid the consequences he would have to endure.“If everyone looked the other way, then everybody was in on it. If he looked the other way, he was as implicated as the rest. That’s how he saw it, how he’d always seen things” (Whitehead). Ultimately, towards the end of the book Elwood decides to do what is morally right for him and faces the consequences. In conclusion, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead shed light upon the cruel injustices that took place in that time period and even in today’s society, which is what made it an amazing novel that did deserve to win the Pulitzer Prize Award.

Sincerely,

Madeline Pitts

Heartworm 

By: Madeline Pitts 

You are a rare disease 

from which I have yet 

to make a full recovery.

They say all good things 

must come to an end,

but I don’t want to live

without your memories.

You are a rare disease

from which I have yet 

To make a full recovery.

For the anguish eats away at me,

and darkness is my only companion. 

You are a rare disease 

from which I have yet 

to make a full recovery.

For I may never make it through. 

My Best Friend

By: Madeline Pitts

When my dad picked us up from my mom’s house on a day that wasn’t Thursday, I knew something was wrong because when I got in the car, I could see the devastating look on his face. Tears started to fill up in his already red eyes, and that’s when I knew that something was really wrong, because that was the first time I had seen my father cry. When he finally built up the courage to talk, the words that came out of his mouth made my heart sink into my stomach and I knew my life would never be the same. You were gone. My best friend and favorite person in the world, he said that you fought really hard to stay here with us but you were in too much pain. And now you were in a better place looking over us and were no longer in pain. We sat in despair for what felt like an eternity, until it was time for my dad to take us back; life still went on, but I could never get rid of the void that your death left in my life.

#1

Love
selfless
infatuated
joy 
content 
complicated
sadness
disenchanted
selfish 
hate

Yogurt

By: Madeline Pitts

creamy creation 
tart pop of blackberry
on the surface of my tongue
then i dropped some on my shirt
and i said 
yogurta be kidding me

You

By: Madeline Pitts

Dad talks about you all the time. Random things like what beer yall would drink together or what songs we would sing together. It feels like forever ago when you were here with us. I can remember some little moments but I have one fond memory that I will remember forever. We had just gotten ice cream sundaes but they didn’t give us any peanuts. I really wanted some peanuts so you went back to Mcdonalds and got me extra peanuts, and said “anything for you.” I know nothing special happened and it was an ordinary day, but it was a special moment to me, because it’s the last memory i have of you.

It's 1:41 pm on a Friday afternoon 
on February 28, 2020 
and i'm thinking about how nice it would be 
to have some allergy medicine right now
because I think death would feel better
than being congested.
I'm reminiscing about all the the times
I wasn't congested and how I took 
advantage of all the times when I could breathe.
Now that i'm thinking about it,
I'm not sure if death would feel better 
than being congested, I should 
appreciate the other things in life , 
like being able to listen to 
Harry Styles' album, fine line, 
because i saw because I saw a comment on Instagram
that said "this song is good, but it's not better
than Harry Styles' music." So I 
decided to check it out, and let me just 
say, it's pretty lit. LOL. Anyways,
I just ate some strawberries and it 
reminded me of the time I 
was eating them in the rain,
and the rain was off and on that day,
so that's why I remember it. 

her smile is as bright as the moon
i saw my socks eat my homework
she cried when she felt the snake crawl up her arm, and heard the slithers, smelt the skin, until it crawled up her mouth and she tasted the leather
her eyes sliced my atria 
i saw makaya pick her wedgie at ann richards
i saw nothing happen to my homework
but then i fell off a cliff and died
makaya farted vigourously and i felt the floor shake
i saw the monkey turn blue because of the time change
did i leave my chromebook in here
the lonely cat of curiosity
funny makaya
makaya was nice
maddie fell
someday she will love me back
loving her was as easy as driving a car in the ocean
the rainy desert 
makaya es fea
the red chair sang
on a starless night

#1
Love 
Homework

#2
Cheetah
Time

#3
Ruler 
Clock