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
After her falling-out with Mandela, Luma tries to regroup. She doesn’t have much time for anything outside of coaching and helping the Fugees families. Even little errands were going undone, like fixing a brake light on her car. But on the soccer field, things are looking up—particularly being on the new field at Milam Park.
St. John’s reference to the brake light here foreshadows Luma’s eventual arrest when the police pull her over for this offense. But at this moment, it is simply more evidence of Luma’s own dedication to the team, as she puts off doing things for herself in favor of doing things for the Fugees.
Themes
On the coming weekend, the Under Thirteens will play an undefeated team in Athens. Luma believes that the team has a chance, particularly now that she had discovered a secret weapon in the Dikori brothers. Idwar and Robin Dikori are playing their first season. They are young and shy, but Luma was impressed by Robin’s ability to appear out of nowhere to clear the ball in the Blue Springs Game.
Luma continues to find new assets to her team, like Idwar and Robin, as more and more of them show improvement and dedicate themselves to the Fugees. Together, the Fugees have combined their skills and now have both a strong community and team—so strong that Luma believes they can defeat and undefeated team.
Themes
The Dikoris are from the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, where in 1989 an Islamist regime comes to power that wanted access to the fertile soil on which the Dikoris lived. The government terrorizes civilians until they flee: bombs are dropped, and government troops kill and rape local villagers. A 1998 report estimates that 200,000 people are killed in the “Nuba genocide.”
Like St. John’s other explorations of different conflicts, the conflict in Sudan that he describes is born of longstanding division due to religious and geographical differences.
Themes
Robin and Idwar’s family is caught in this campaign of violence, and is forced to take a days-long journey into the hills to hide from the government, before returning to try and save any possessions and goods they could. The family then moves to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to try and get away from the killing.
The Dikoris serve as another example of the immense strength it takes to move to a new place, with very little remaining of what they had in their old life.
Themes
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Eventually, facing more pressure from the Islamist government, the Dikori family joins the tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees streaming into Egypt. There, refugees are not allowed to work, and also face racial discrimination because of their dark skin. The Dikoris’ father applies for resettlement for himself, his wife, and his three daughters and three sons. In 2000, they receive word that they had been accepted for relocation to Georgia.
St. John makes it clear that refugees experience discrimination all over the world. Racism is not contained solely to America, but is prevalent in many different regions, and for many different reasons.
Themes
The family is able to settle in, learning English and becoming familiar with American culture. But in 2002, tragedy strikes: the family is visiting fellow Sudanese refugees when they get in a car crash, killing the boys’ mother and sisters. The next months are difficult: Idwar becomes silent, while Robin acts out at school. But then, their older brother Shamsoun finds the Fugees, and all three boys join the teams. Gradually, they open back up and become more confident. Soccer “[keeps] the boys sane,” and helps them make friends.
For many of the boys, the Fugees represent a community that allows them to assimilate into this new American culture. But for the Dikoris, it represents even more than that: it gives them a support system that helps them recover from the tragedy of losing their mother and sisters. It helps them find the strength and confidence they need.
Themes
