Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Outcasts United, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Refugees, Discrimination, and Resilience
Community and Teamwork vs. Division
Leadership and Respect
Discipline, Dedication, and Success
Summary
Analysis
Luma leads two standard practices for the new Under Fifteens team, but for the third, she gives them a challenge: a scrimmage between them and the Under Seventeens. She knows that they will likely lose and wants to see how they react when they are being beaten.
Luma recognizes that Kanue and the other players have already proven their dedication to the team by rallying more teammates to try out. Now, she wants to test their disciplinee to make sure that even when they are losing, they can keep their cool.
Themes
Luma also worries specifically about Mandela, who had been quiet and angry at practice. He is still frustrated that Prince isn’t on the team because of the hair rule and disappointed that Fornatee hadn’t shown up to tryouts. He snaps at kids who make bad passes and barely speaks to anyone otherwise. Luma senses that he’s simply upset about his friends and hopes that he will come around.
For all of these kids, the team represents not only an activity, but also a community that they want to be a part of—and which they want their friends to be a part of, as well. Without this sense of unity, Mandela grows upset, and creates even more divisions within the team by being angry and withdrawn around the others.
Themes
Fornatee hears about the scrimmage and decides to approach Luma to ask to rejoin the team. When Luma arrives, she tells Fornatee to go away and that he can talk to her after the match, startling him. He goes over to sit with some friends who have gathered for the game, including Prince.
Fornatee’s decision not to try out for the team again serves as a test to Luma’s authority. Thus, when he returns to try to rejoin the team, she makes it clear that she will speak to him on her own terms.
Themes
The game between the Seventeens and Fifteens begins. The Seventeens are older and also more talented, but the Fifteens display “a new energy and determination.” Early on, Mandela sets up a new player named Muamer, but Muamer misses the shot. Mandela yells at him. Moments later, Peshawa fires a shot on the Fifteens’ goalie and scores, 1-0.
The early moments of the game against the Under Seventeens underscores the problems with division. Mandela continues to break trust between himself and other players by yelling at his new teammates. St. John implies that this leads pretty directly to the other team scoring: if they can’t work together, they cannot succeed.
Themes
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The Fifteens don’t give up. Soon, Mandela weaves through the defense and fires a perfect shot. By halftime, the score is still tied. Luma tells the Fifteens, “You’re outhustling them—keep it up.” On the other side of the field, Peshawa shouts at the other Seventeens to be more alert. He tells them to guard Mandela and control the ball.
Even with Mandela’s frustrations, they are able to keep up the hustle to compete with a team that is older and more experienced than they are. Luma is impressed with the dedication that they are displaying and continues to encourage it.
Themes
In the second half, the Seventeens take advantage of their size and experience, and Peshawa is able to score again. A few minutes later, Kanue is tackled by one of the older players, but Luma doesn’t blow her whistle. With the ball across the field, Kanue then slides into the player’s ankles with his cleats up—a move that would have drawn a red card during a regular game. Luma tells Kanue to take a lap.
Kanue’s outburst and intentional foul on the other players is exactly the kind of lack of discipline that Luma is wary of. She wants to make sure that her team can play safely and with sportsmanlike conduct, even when the other teams don’t necessarily hold themselves to the same standard.
Themes
The match ends 3-2: the Seventeens win. Luma tells the Fifteens that they had played a decent game but tells Kanue that if he loses his temper again, he’s off the team. Kanue shakes his head, disappointed in himself. Privately, Luma is also concerned that Mandela had lashed out at his new teammates. But the team’s effort had been impressive.
Despite some of their shortcomings, the Under Fifteens are able to pass Luma’s test. Though they trail the Under Seventeens for most of the game, they never give up, proving their dedication to the team under all conditions.
Themes
Luma then turns to where Fornatee had been sitting. But the boys are no longer there—Fornatee has walked away from the team for good. Luma cleans up and leaves the field, growing more and more tired of the scene at Indian Creek.
In contrast to the boys who had put in so much effort to keep their team alive, Fornatee is quickly pulled away from the team by the appeal of remaining with other friends like Prince. Luma barely reacts to this loss, however, knowing that a kid like Fornatee, if he wasn’t fully committed, would only be disrespectful and could not be an asset to the team.
Themes
The next day, Luma drives down to City Hall to ask Mayor Swaney whether they can use another field, Armistead field, in Milam Park. It has grass, is surrounded by a fence, is frequently patrolled by the Clarkston police, and goes completely unused. Mayor Swaney listens, knowing that giving “a group of refugees free run of the place” would anger the residents around Milam Park, but he doesn’t want negative publicity. He tells Luma that she is free to make her case to the Clarkston City Council, which is meeting in five days.
In the ongoing saga of finding a nice home field for the refugees, St. John again demonstrates how Mayor Swaney, and the citizens at large, often discriminate against the refugees simply because of their status in the community. Swaney refuses to give his permission to Luma, instead passing the responsibility onto the Clarkston City Council.
Themes
