All American Boys Characters
The main characters in All American Boys are Rashad Butler and Quinn Collins.
- Rashad Butler is a Black high school junior, artist, and JROTC cadet who is beaten and arrested by Officer Paul Galluzzo after being falsely accused of shoplifting. Though initially reluctant to act, he ultimately leads a protest march against police brutality.
- Quinn Collins is a white high school senior and basketball player who witnesses Rashad’s beating. Because Paul is a close family friend, Quinn struggles with whether or not to speak out, but he eventually decides to participate in the march.
Characters
Rashad Butler
Rashad is one of the novel’s two narrators. He is a Black junior in high school, a JROTC cadet, and an aspiring artist. At the beginning of the novel, Rashad attempts to buy a bag of chips and a pack of gum from a convenience store, but the clerk accuses him of stealing. He is then taken outside by a police officer, Paul Galluzzo, who beats him on the sidewalk, breaking Rashad’s nose and ribs. Over the course of the novel, most of which he spends recovering in the hospital, Rashad must come to terms with having become a victim of racist police brutality and determine how he is going to react to the injustice. While part of him wants to return to normal and keep quiet about what he experienced, his friends, his classmates, and the media will not let him. Eventually, Rashad accepts his unasked-for fame and leads a protest march, deciding that he cannot remain silent about an issue that affects not only himself, but his entire community.
Quinn Collins
Quinn is one of two narrators in the novel. He is a white high school senior, hoping to be scouted by a university for a basketball scholarship. Early in the novel, he witnesses Paul Galluzzo, a family friend and a police officer, brutally beating Rashad, one of Quinn’s classmates. Throughout the story, Quinn grapples with what he saw, trying to determine where his loyalties lie. Initially he would prefer not to worry about the situation, as he is meant to remain focused on the school basketball season, but as the team becomes divided by this event, Quinn realizes that he must choose a side. Quinn also worries about living up to his father’s name. His mother works night shifts, and Quinn assumes a paternal role by taking care of his younger brother, Willy. Because his father was a “model citizen” and a war hero, Quinn is unsure that he will ever be able to live up to his father’s legacy. He reconciles this struggle at the end of the novel, realizing that the best way to honor his father’s memory is to stand up for his own beliefs by marching for Rashad.
David Butler
David is Rashad’s father. A former military man and police officer, he currently holds an office job. He is a straight-laced, conservative man, and although he does not deny the reality of racism or injustice, he has no interest in fighting the system; he would rather work within it, following the rules as best he can, and this is the lesson he teaches his children. It is revealed late in the novel that when he was a police officer, he shot an unarmed young Black man, believing him to be a criminal and paralyzing him from the waist down. While he remains resistant to protesting or changing his beliefs for most of the novel, David ultimately joins his family in the protest march, acknowledging both Rashad’s innocence and his own part in perpetuating police brutality.
Jessica Butler
Jessica is Rashad’s mother. Caring and protective of Rashad, she also serves as a peacekeeper between David and Spoony when they clash over matters of racial politics. She is religious and relatively conservative, and late in the novel, Rashad is surprised to hear her swear when she sees Paul’s photo on the news. While she worries for her children’s safety, Jessica ultimately encourages them to stand up for themselves and marches with Rashad at the end of the novel.
Spoony Butler
Spoony is Rashad’s older brother and works for UPS. He is politically savvy...
(This entire section contains 1468 words.)
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and has an active voice in the fight for racial justice, attending protests against police brutality with his girlfriend, Spoony. When his brother is beaten by a police officer, Spoony helps to make Rashad’s beating a legal, political, and media issue. He is often at odds with his father, who believes that if Black people would simply follow the rules and behave better, police violence wouldn’t be such an issue.
Berry
Berry is Spoony’s girlfriend. She attends law school and is active in racial politics, and Rashad recalls that he and his friends all harbored crushes on her until she started dating Spoony.
English Jones
English is one of Rashad’s friends and a talented member of Central High’s basketball team. Although his future may depend on securing a basketball scholarship, he is loyal to Rashad and encourages a protest march on Rashad’s behalf, even though the coach has warned the team not to participate. He also serves as a sounding board for Quinn, becoming angry when Quinn hypothetically sides with Paul but agreeing with Quinn’s suggestion that they rename their basketball play “Rashad.”
Carlos
Carlos is one of Rashad’s friends and a graffiti artist, and the two have a joking, teasing relationship. After the beating, Carlos spray paints “Rashad is absent again today” on the sidewalk outside Central High as a way to raise awareness for what happened to Rashad, inspiring a hashtag and similar graffiti all over Springfield.
Shannon
Shannon is one of Rashad’s friends and a member of the basketball team.
Shirley Fitzgerald
Shirley Fitzgerald, or Mrs. Fitzgerald, is a Black woman in her sixties who works at the hospital gift shop. Having lived through the civil rights era but never participated, even when her brother urged her to march with him in Selma, she now regrets not having taken action and encourages Rashad to attend the protest.
Clarissa
Clarissa is Rashad’s young, white nurse at the hospital. She sympathizes with Rashad and encourages him as he draws, asking him about his sketches. By taking an interest in his life, she offers Rashad the potential to reflect on and collect his thoughts, especially about racial justice and police brutality. Rashad later sees Clarissa at the protest, showing solidarity with his cause.
Ma
Ma is Quinn’s mother. As a single mother, she works night shifts at Uline to support her family and regrets not having more time to spend with her children. She serves as one of Quinn’s primary motivators, as Quinn sees how hard she works on his and Willy’s behalf. Ma also regularly reminds him to assume the responsibilities that his father is no longer there to take on. Because Paul has been there for their family, she discourages Quinn from protesting or speaking out about what he saw, but she eventually accepts Quinn’s decision to march after Quinn tells her he believes it’s what his father would have done.
Willy
Willy is Quinn’s little brother. Although he sometimes acts spoiled, he ultimately sees his older brother as a role model. Willy serves as a way for Quinn to mature and assume a fatherly role, particularly when Quinn attends Willy’s soccer practice for the first time and realizes how much it means to both of them. At the end of the novel, just before the march begins, Quinn records a video for Willy about what it means to take responsibility and honor their father’s memory, which shows how deeply Quinn has taken this role to heart and his commitment to looking out for his younger brother.
Paul Galuzzo
Paul is a police officer who brutalizes and arrests Rashad. He is the older brother of Quinn’s friend Guzzo and a close family friend of the Collinses. At one time he served as a role model and father figure for Quinn, but as the story progresses, evidence mounts that Paul has become a bully driven by racist ideas and a need to intimidate others. He also lies about the beating, claiming that Rashad was attacking a woman in the convenience store, and is angry when Quinn doesn’t believe his story.
Guzzo
Guzzo is one of Quinn’s closest friends and Paul’s little brother. He remains loyal to Paul and defends his treatment of Rashad. When Quinn decides to attend the protest march, Guzzo disowns Quinn as a friend and punches him in the face.
Jill
Jill Paul and Guzzo’s cousin, but she does not support Paul’s actions, and she helps organize the protest march. She is also Quinn’s crush. Throughout the novel, Jill serves as a kind of moral guide for Quinn; often, when he has doubts or is unsure of what direction to take, Quinn talks to Jill, who encourages him to stand up for what he believes in.
Dwyer
Dwyer is one of Quinn’s friends and a member of the basketball team. By the end of the novel, Quinn and Dwyer are at odds, as Quinn has sided with Rashad’s cause, while Dwyer supports Paul and Guzzo.
