MAPPING RACIAL DOMINANCE: A POSTCOLONIAL CRITIQUE OF SPATIAL STRUCTURES IN WHITEHEAD’S THE NICKEL BOYS

Abstract

This research paper offers a postcolonial spatial analysis of Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, arguing that the Nickel Academy is a "material engine" of racial injustice rather than a neutral backdrop. Drawing on Frantz Fanon’s theory of the Manichean worldview, where the colonial universe is bifurcated into zones of "being" and "non-being," the study decodes the school’s geography as a literal map of systemic power. Moving beyond themes of trauma, the qualitative analysis demonstrates how racism is embedded in the architecture and enacted through space. By examining segregated dormitories, administrative facades, and the punitive "White House," the paper shows how physical design reifies racial ideology. This hierarchy is reinforced by a "discursive architecture" of euphemisms that masks state violence. Ultimately, Whitehead’s reform school serves as a monument to persistent colonial logic in America. By linking carceral studies with postcolonial theory, the research argues that the novel uses spatial narrative to critique how racial power is constructed, maintained, and resisted within the built environment.