93 pages • 3 hours read
All American Boys
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Chapter 1 Summary: “Rashad”
All American Boys is told from the perspective of two alternating narrators, and Chapter 1 introduces the first of those narrators, high school junior Rashad Butler. It’s Friday afternoon and Rashad is hurrying out of his “wack school” and “wack ROTC drill team” because, as he puts it, “Friday was just another word for party” (5). Rashad explains that he’s part of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) because his father has implored him to join. Rashad’s dad was formerly in the military and insists that “there’s no better opportunity for a black boy in this country than to join the army” (8). Rashad’s older brother, Randolph, nicknamed “Spoony,” works for UPS, and their father says that “green and blue uniforms were okay, but brown ones meant failure” (9). Their father thinks that Spoony “is stuck working down at UPS” (9) because of his refusal to join the ROTC in high school, a belief he uses to push Rashad into being a cadet.
Rashad connects with his friend English Jones, the “stereotypical green-eyed pretty boy” (10) and captain of the basketball team who manages to charm just about everyone, and the rest of their group, Shannon Pushcart and Carlos Greene. English tells the boys they have to be at Jill’s party that night because “it’s supposed to be live” (13). Shannon and English leave to practice basketball, and Rashad explains that Carlos, like Rashad himself, is an artist. Carlos is a “writer” of graffiti (14) all over their neighborhood, and Rashad gives him ideas for his pieces.
Rashad catches a bus to the West Side of his hometown, Springfield, to pick up snacks. He arrives at Jerry’s Corner Mart and enters to see only one other customer and a policeman—not surprising, since Jerry’s is an easy place to shoplift from, although Rashad himself is “just not the stealing type” (18).
Rashad takes his time picking out chips while the other customer, a white woman dressed in professional office wear, is studying the beer behind him. Rashad realizes his cell phone is in his duffel bag and sets the bag down to unzip it just as the female customer steps backward and trips over him, causing him to drop his chips. She apologizes, but the store owner, seeing Rashad, the open bag, and the chips on the floor, thinks he is trying to steal the chips. At the same time, the policeman asks the woman if Rashad “d[id] something” to her (20).
Without letting Rashad explain, the police officer pushes Rashad outside, slams him to the ground, cuffs him, and searches him with such force Rashad describes the pain as “a color—white, a crunching sound in my ear as bones in my nose cracked” (22). Rashad instinctively moves to ease the pain, but the police officer believes he’s resisting and beats him violently, calling Rashad a “fuckin’ thug” and saying that he’ll teach him to “respect authority” (23). Rashad is dimly aware of a crowd gathering, but all he can do is think “please don’t kill me” (23) as he hears sirens approach.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Quinn”
Chapter 2 begins on the same Friday afternoon as Chapter 1 but shifts to Quinn’s narration. Quinn is planning on partying with his buddies, Guzzo and Dwyer, but first he has to get his younger brother, Will, packed and over to the neighbor’s house. Quinn resents having to take care of Will, who is “the baby of the family” (25) and still coddled even in the seventh grade. Quinn says that since his father died fighting in Afghanistan, the rest of the family all “have [their] roles to play” (26)—his mother is busy working and expects a lot of Quinn, and Quinn himself must be the “dutiful son” and “All-American boy” (27).
While Will is getting ready, Quinn steals some of his mother’s bourbon, which he does every Friday night. Quinn walks Will to their neighbors’, acknowledging that while Will annoys him, he does “love the little pain in my ass” (29).
Having safely deposited his brother with the neighbors, Quinn meets Dwyer and Guzzo near Jerry’s Corner Mart, where they’re planning to get beer. This is their last Friday of partying before it’s “back to hell” (32), with basketball team meetings every weekend. All three are anxious to be recruited by colleges, so there will be little chance to slack off. Quinn is particularly excited about Jill’s party—the same party Rashad planned on attending—because he has a crush on his friend Guzzo’s cousin, Jill.
In the past, Quinn has stolen beer from Jerry’s, but he typically asks one of the guys hanging around outside to buy it for him. This time, before he can do so, a police officer pushes a young black guy out the door and begins beating him. Quinn thinks the teen—who is, in fact, Rashad—may go to his school, and he distinctly recognizes the officer as Guzzo’s older brother, Paul.
Quinn watches, “transfixed” (38) by this scene of violence, until other police arrive, and Quinn retreats to his buddies. They climb over the alley fence, hoping to escape the scene without anyone seeing them so that, as Quinn says, “[W]e can all just pretend like we weren’t here. Like it didn’t happen” (39). The friends go to get pizza, but Quinn keeps thinking about Paul, whom he sees as an older brother, and finds he can’t “shake that look of rage I’d seen on the face of a man I knew and thought of as family” (40).
Chapter 3 Summary: “Rashad”
Rashad is taken to the hospital, and he is charged with shoplifting, resisting arrest, and being a public nuisance before being returned to his parents’ custody. He has a broken nose that the doctors tell him will never look the same and several fractured ribs. He wakes up on Saturday morning to find his parents in his hospital room. Rashad explains what happened, and while his mother is “horrified,” his father insists that Rashad “had to have done something wrong to bring this on” (49). His dad, a former police officer, says that Rashad didn’t follow his advice to “never fight back” and “never talk back” (50), and as a result, Rashad “asked for this” (51).
Spoony arrives and quickly becomes enraged by how the police treated his little brother. He effuses, “I’m so sick of them treating us like we animals. Like we America’s disobedient dogs!” (52). Next, the doctor, Dr. Barnes, enters and says that Rashad needs to be monitored for a few days because he has some internal bleeding around his lungs, which may require surgery.
Rashad notices Spoony making calls and texting and is sure Spoony has told his girlfriend, Berry, what happened. Rashad suspects that since his best friend, English Jones, is Berry’s little brother, eventually “half the school” (57) will learn about the beating. Spoony tells Rashad he’s “not gonna sit here and let them sweep this under the rug” (59), and for a second, Rashad wishes he could tell his brother to let it go. Rashad doesn’t believe anything will change—he’s seen this situation in the news, and, in the end, “nothing happens. The cops get off” (59). However, Rashad knows there’s no changing Spoony’s mind. As a young black man who gets his style from “nineties hip-hop, gritty, realness” (51), Spoony has been treated as a “suspect” his entire life, and he refuses to allow “his little brother—the ROTC art kid—to become one too” (60).
Chapter 4 Summary: “Quinn”
Quinn, Guzzo, and Dwyer make it to Jill’s party but can’t shake the memory of the violence they witnessed, and Quinn doesn’t talk to Jill, despite his crush on her. Quinn remembers how after his father died seven year ago, Paul would take him to the local park, called Gooch Park, and teach him basketball drills. He can’t reconcile that memory with “the man [he]’d watched grind a kid into the sidewalk,” who seems like “some hulking animal stalking the shadows of [his] mind” (62).
On Saturday morning, Quinn shares a sweet moment with his mother. He notices that “the bags under her eyes were prunes,” yet “despite her exhaustion, somehow she still always found a smile for [him]” (65). He plans to spend the day practicing at the basketball court, since Coach is choosing starters next week. Scouts are coming soon, and if Quinn wants a scholarship to a good college, he has “to show them who [he]was. [He] had to be a starter” (66). Before he can leave, his mother, now furious, finds the flask in the pocket of his jeans from the night before.
Quinn’s mother reminds him that “this is the year everyone looks to see what kind of man [he] want[s] to become” (69), and if he has values, he needs to act on them. Quinn feels like “a jerk-off” (69) and promises he won’t steal her alcohol again. His mother orders him to go watch his brother’s soccer game and to take Will out for pizza afterward.
Quinn takes the bus to the East Side for Will’s game, and Guzzo texts him that the situation with Paul is “a big deal” (73) and that the Galluzzo family is having a barbecue tomorrow. Diverting his mind from recent events, Quinn starts to enjoy watching the game and thinks that “it’s actually pretty cool having a little brother” (75).
After the game, Quinn and Will go to get pizza, and they run into Jill. Jill is “super flirty” (79) with Quinn, but he still gets “the feeling she thought of [him] more as a brother” (80). The chapter ends as Jill asks if Quinn is going to the Galluzzos’ party the next day. While they agree the sudden gathering is “weird,” they suspect that they may “have an idea what this is about” (82).
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
Throughout All American Boys, the same timeline is covered twice in consecutive chapters, once through Rashad’s viewpoint and once through Quinn’s. Through this technique, the authors illustrate how the lives of a black and white high schooler connect and diverge over one dramatic week.
In Chapters 1 to 2, Rashad and Quinn each prepare for a typical Friday night of partying, and what’s most striking are the similarities between the two. Rashad is pressured by his father to join ROTC, while Quinn feels pressure from the legacy of his father, who was killed in Afghanistan, and tries to live up to his dad’s “All-American” (27) standards. Both boys just want to let loose on a Friday night, although it’s worth noting that while Quinn engages in typical teenage transgressions like stealing his mom’s alcohol, Rashad stays on the straight and narrow.
Despite their similarities, the differences caused by Quinn’s and Rashad’s respective races become clear at the end of each chapter. In Chapter 1, Rashad is unfairly judged by a policeman and beaten because of his race. He is unable to attend the party he was looking forward to and ends up in the hospital, where he’s trapped for much of the remainder of the novel. Quinn witnesses this act of violence just as he is about to ask a loiterer to buy alcohol for him. Ironically, Quinn has the intention to engage in an illegal activity, and because he is white, he can expect to do so unscathed.
Unlike Rashad, Quinn attends the party but finds himself unable to enjoy it. Throughout the next day, Quinn is haunted by the image of Paul’s face, “a bloodred mask of rage” (74). This image serves as an early indicator that Quinn’s sense of right and wrong ultimately won’t allow him to walk away from what he has witnessed, and he’ll find himself changed because of it.
These early chapters also introduce the idea of being “All-American” and the importance certain characters place on patriotism. Rashad’s dad places faith in American institutions, believing “there’s no better opportunity for a black boy in this country than to join the army” (6), while Quinn’s father died fighting for American values.
These opening chapters present the important question of how the novel’s characters will respond to the act of racism and violence against Rashad. Rashad’s dad places the blame on his own son for not appearing respectable, while even a part of Rashad himself wants “to let it go” (59), believing things will never change. Rashad’s brother, however, sees the incident as an example of how African-Americans are treated “like […] America’s disobedient dogs” (52) and is determined to fight back. These differing viewpoints, along with Quinn’s initial unwillingness to think deeply about the beating at all, set up the contrasting responses to racism that will be explored throughout the novel.
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