Breakout

The deuteragonist of the novel and a foil for Nora, Elidee Jones is a new student beginning Wolf Creek Middle School at the end of the year. She and her mother have moved from the Bronx in order to be close enough to visit her brother Troy, who is incarcerated at the prison. As a Black girl, a newcomer, and the sister of an incarcerated person, Elidee is positioned as an outsider in a town of predominantly white, lifelong residents, most of whom work at the prison or know someone who does. When she beats Nora’s time in a practice run for the annual Mad Mile race, the novel heightens the two girls’ roles as would-be rivals; however, Elidee’s growing friendship with both Nora and Lizzie emphasizes their similarities rather than their differences.

Encouraged by her mother, Elidee tries to make the best of things, even though her experiences in Wolf Creek demonstrate the town’s Racism, Bias, and Privilege; her feelings of isolation and loneliness, compounded by the way she is treated by her peers before and especially after the prison break, reinforce Elidee’s own biases against town residents. Both because of her brother’s incarceration and because of prejudices in the town, Elidee feels pressure to avoid trouble at all costs. The novel depicts Elidee’s efforts to cope and come to terms with these issues through her letters to Troy and her love of poetry; she finds mentors in other writers of color, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jacqueline Woodson, Nikki Grimes, and Nikki Giovanni. These writers show her that it is always best to present the truth of her own experience. By taking this lesson to heart, Elidee is able to “write her way out” of Wolf Creek by gaining acceptance to Morgan Academy.

As Nora’s best friend, Lizzie fills the role of sidekick, willing to support Nora’s journalistic endeavors and participate in the relay race even though she hates running. In many ways, she is a conscience for Nora, reminding her how to treat people and when to look past her own worldview. Her perspective provides a contrast to Nora’s serious and sincere writing, as Lizzie takes a high-energy, irreverent tone in parody-style news articles written for the time capsule; this establishes her as a source of comic relief early in the novel. Because she takes audio recordings of various events, her time-capsule entries provide a broader range of perspectives than Nora’s and Elidee’s, and her reflections on various types of media, like pie charts, develop the novel’s themes while helping readers process these perspectives. Lizzie’s reflection that pie charts are cool because “[t]hey help you see things” (48) emphasizes the idea that readers will get to see many different perspectives through Lizzie’s documents.

As events take a more serious turn, Lizzie’s parodies, reflections, and recordings often emphasize the hypocrisy of those around her, making her a symbol of The Media’s Role in Shaping Perceptions and the impacts of Racism, Bias, and Privilege. When Lizzie’s grandmother, Priscilla Wadsworth, is arrested for helping the inmates escape, she learns about what Elidee has been experiencing, as students begin to whisper in the halls and treat her as an outsider. Her parodies of officials’ comments at press conferences, the ham supper, and coverage of her grandmother’s arrest highlight the different tones media takes toward labeling people as “good” or “bad.” As Lizzie grapples with being on the wrong side of public opinion, her willingness to look skeptically at prison officials like Nora’s father further reminds readers that there are multiple versions of every story, and of the dangers of a news media that tries to create heroes and villains.