As the device underlying the Selection, the theme of making a choice drives the premise of the book and raises several implications around the importance of making a wise choice. For Prince Maxon, the Selection, much like an elimination dating program, assembles diverse candidates so he might choose a wife from among them. The consequences of his choice are not only personal but also national, raising the stakes to select a suitable candidate. Amplifying the themes of choice and its consequences is the premise that, in her own version of the Selection, America also must decide who will be the object of their affections. She and Maxon feel competing attachments to other people, which allows exploration of the confusion and painful repercussions when the right choice isn’t clear. America’s struggle is not only romantic but symbolic of her broader conflict between the familiar safety of her past with Aspen and the uncertain but promising future with Maxon, representing a choice between two versions of her life.

Maxon and America’s investment in their relationship progresses in opposite trajectories, making their choices even more difficult. Maxon begins the novel certain that America is his choice, and he is only waiting for her to indicate her readiness in order to publicly commit.