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Chapter 15
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
The next day, gunshots ring out around the apartment buildings behind Indian Creek Elementary. Tito, the Liberian that Osman had recruited, is shot in the face. The details are murky: Tito and some fellow Liberians got into an argument with an African American teenager they knew who was in a gang. Tito and his fellow Liberians identified themselves as members of a gang called the Africans, and the American teenager began to shoot. Fortunately for Tito, the bullet hit his chin, not his neck or skull, and he will live.
This episode of violence comes as a shock to Luma and many of the Fugees, as they face yet another challenge in keeping themselves safe within their soccer program. Gangs serve to echo the divisions between many of the ethnic groups in countries that the Fugees had fled, once again tying ethnic or political disagreements to violence and disruption.
Themes
Luma is shaken and worries about other gang members showing up to practice to avenge the shooter, who had been arrested. She temporarily cancels practice and kicks Tito and Osman off the team. Many thought that Tito had been bluffing by saying he was in a gang (a gang which no one had heard of), but Luma knows that it is dangerous to even pretend to be in a gang. She worries about the safety of her players at Indian Creek Elementary and is eager to plead her case to use the Milam Park field.
Luma draws a hard line with Tito and Osman being involved with the Fugees following this incident—she understands that the safety of her players has to be her number one priority. Otherwise, she would be betraying the community of families and players that she has worked so hard to protect.
Themes
