Corey Character Analysis in The Nickel Boys

Corey is a young boy at Nickel Academy. On Elwood’s second night at the school, he enters the bathroom to find Black Mike and Lonnie beating up Corey. When he tries to intervene, a houseman hears the commotion and reports all of them to Spencer, who takes them that night to the White House for individual beatings. Afterwards, Turner tells Elwood that Corey likes it when Black Mike and Lonnie harass him, adding that the young boy takes the bullies into a bathroom stall when they’re finished beating him up and gives them oral sex. Whether or not this is true, Turner’s story about Corey outlines his belief that it’s best to stay out of other people’s business at Nickel.

Corey Quotes in The Nickel Boys

The The Nickel Boys quotes below are all either spoken by Corey or refer to Corey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

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Corey got around seventy—Elwood lost his place a few times—and it didn’t make sense, why did the bullies get less than the bullied? Now he had no idea what he was in for. It didn’t make sense. Maybe they lost count, too. Maybe there was no system at all to the violence and no one, not the keepers nor the kept, knew what happened or why.

Related Characters: Elwood Curtis, Maynard Spencer, Lonnie, Earl, Corey, Black Mike

Page Number and Citation: 68

Explanation and Analysis: