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Max Shaw

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp Pd. 2

17 December 2021

Prejudice and Protest: Exploring Activism in All American Boys

Prejudice has been a problem in America for as long as most of us can remember. In the

book: All American Boys, these ideas are explored in vivid detail. These ideas are explored

through structure and characters, and they paint a great picture of racism and prejudice in

America. The book uses characters to provide interesting, yet grounded anchors to the story that

the reader can relate to. It also uses structure to show its ideas by presenting two different

perspectives to the same issue. The Book does a great job showing the themes of fighting against

prejudice through characters and structure.

In All American Boys, there is a brutal depiction of police brutality. It shows a police

officer named Paul Galluzzo brutally beating an unarmed African American teen who had just

been in the wrong place at the wrong time. On page 62 of All American Boys, Quinn, who is one

of the main characters, is explaining how officer Galluzzo was the one who was a father figure

for him when his actual father died. (Reynolds and Kiely) This example from the book shows the

depth of the characters while keeping them believable, and shows what moral questions Quinn

must ask himself about what he can do. With the mix of emotions Quinn is feeling about the man

who felt like a father to him, from disgust, to love, to everything in between, the ideas of

prejudice and racism are displayed vividly. This also makes Quinn a much more interesting

character because it shows his inner conflict between the man that basically raised him, and the
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moral reprehension he feels about what Galluzzo did. Overall, this example shows how Quinn

and Galluzzo are complex, interesting characters that advance the novel’s story and further the

books themes of fighting against prejudice and combating racism.

For another example, it says: “’The boy’s never even been suspended. But they don’t

know that,’ Dad said. ‘What they see is what he presents. And it sounds like he presented himself

as just another…’” (Reynolds, 49). This quote from the novel is an example that shows how a

man who has been experiencing the system of the law for a long time trying to justify what

happened. It mainly helps to show how the many different perspectives in this book help convey

the themes. This is also heavily connected to the structure of the book, because while this might

not be a quote from another main character, it was a good example to show how different points

of view can impact the storytelling. This also further explores the ideas from the novel about

injustice and prejudice because it shows how a boy’s parents react to him being assaulted

wrongly by police by assuming that their son was asking for it by looking like a normal African

American kid. It also shows how it is just treated as normal fact that it is impossible to go around

looking like a normal black teen without getting in trouble with the cops. While there might be a

lot of political messaging in this part, the authors manage to not make their political dialogue too

heavy, while connecting back to the rich ideas of the novel and showing how structure

contributes to the themes.

Finally, one last example is when on page 310, it says: “For all the people who came

before us, fighting this fight, I was here, screaming at the top of my lungs. Rashad Butler.

Present” (Reynolds and Kiely). This quote, which is the paragraph that ends the book, shows

how Rashad finally came to his decision to fight against prejudice. It shows how one person’s

actions can influence a whole group of people, and in this case, it shows a whole community
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protesting racism. It shows how he decided to fight for himself, his friends, his community, and

everyone else that isn’t there anymore to fight. This example further explores the novel’s ideas of

prejudice and protest because it is the culmination of the entire book, while showing the effect of

everything that has happened throughout the course of the novel. It portrays a grounded yet

interesting depiction of activism and protesting through the characters it has developed, and the

satisfaction of seeing everything come together. This example explores the ideas of the novel in

detail and shows the culmination of everything that has happened thus far.

To conclude, the ideas in the book All American Boys are displayed through interesting

and grounded characters. The book explores its ideas of racism and prejudice through its

relatable and grounded characters that provide a great way for the reader to attach themselves to

the story. The novel also uses its unique structure to its advantage. It uses the structure to provide

a differing point of view between characters to the same issue. It uses the two different points of

view to establish two completely different, yet somewhat similar characters to carry the story.

The book does a great job exploring its themes and ideas of prejudice and protest through its

characters and its structure.

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Work cited
Reynolds, Jason, and Brendan Kiely. All American Boys. New York, NY: Atheneum, September
29th,2015, Print