Previous
Big Chet
Director Hardee is the director of Nickel Academy. Although he isn’t involved in the institution’s day-to-day operations, he oversees things like the annual boxing championship, gathering board members and influential people from the town of Eleanor and getting them to bet on the outcome of the fights. When he hears that a team of government inspectors is coming to survey the school, he cancels all classes and forces the students to clean and repair the grounds, wanting everything to look good during the inspection.
Get the entire The Nickel Boys LitChart as a printable PDF.
Director Hardee Character Timeline in The Nickel Boys
The timeline below shows where the character Director Hardee appears in The Nickel Boys. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Five
...for more challenging work, and the man promises to take up the matter with Director Hardee.
(full context)
...him amongst the white students, he reassigns him to the black dorms, but when Director Hardee sees him there, he moves him back. Despite this, Jaimie focuses on showing Elwood the...
(full context)
Chapter Nine
...match, though everyone knows it will be Big Chet against Griff. Near the ring, Director Hardee sits with various board members and with his wife, whom the students try hard not...
(full context)
Chapter Fourteen
At one point during Elwood’s spring term at Nickel Academy, Director Hardee learns through a whisper-network of board members that the state will be sending inspectors to...
(full context)
...letter into his pocket. On this particular day, Elwood and Turner stay on campus because Hardee doesn’t want the inspectors to know that they usually leave the grounds. Consequently, they work...
(full context)
Chapter Sixteen
...to come for him, Turner explains that he heard through the grapevine that Spencer and Hardee are planning on taking him “out back” the next night. Stopping for a moment, Elwood...
(full context)
