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Chapter 20
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, the Under Fifteens have a big away game against a team called the Santos. After their big win, the team struggled to get into a groove because of Tito’s shooting and the change in practice venues. Mandela’s mood also worsened.
While the Under Thirteens begin to work together very well, the Under Fifteens have some discord. Even though they found success in their first game, they have had trouble finding a rhythm as a team since then.
Themes
As the game starts, Mandela passes the ball to Muamer, but Muamer isn’t there and the ball rolls out of bounds. A few minutes later, Kanue is shoved while going for the ball, but he is blamed and called for a foul. The Santos take a penalty kick and score for a 1-0 lead. Soon after, a Santos striker gets ahead of the Fugees’ defense and scores again—then again. The score is 3-0. At each mistake, Mandela lays into his teammates.
Mandela, in particular, is creating conflict within the team. The more he lashes out at his teammates, the less and less they are able to work as a team, and the further and further fall behind.
Themes
For the rest of the half, Mandela refuses to pass to his teammates and makes a run for the goal, but each time he fails. At halftime, Luma benches Mandela and tries to give her players some guidance. In the second half, the Fugees play better and manage to score a goal, but the game ends 6-1, Santos. Luma tells her team that they made some sloppy mistakes on defense and weren’t aggressive enough; they have a lot to work on in the coming week.
Just as Prince and Fornatee demonstrated earlier in the season, Mandela serves as another example of how a lack of discipline and teamwork directly leads to a lack of success. Even though he is a talented player, Mandela cannot win the game by himself. This again highlights the importance of the Fugees as a community.
Themes
Luma drives Natnael and Mandela back to Clarkston in her own car. She turns to Natnael, saying that she has a problem: a kid who shows up when he feels like it, curses and disrespect his teammates, and only calls his coach on the phone when he needs something. She tells Natnael all she had done for this player: taking care of paperwork to get him school lunches, bringing his family food, helping his family move, taking care of his mother and brother. Mandela squirms in the back seat.
Luma not only brings up the lack of respect that Mandela had shown to his teammates and to Luma on the soccer field, but how his performance on the Fugees is a direct reflection of how he doesn’t appreciate all the things that Luma does. Luma commands respect because she coaches the team, but also because she is trying to improve the Fugees’ lives in any way she possibly can.
Themes
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Luma asks Natnael what he would do with this kid, if he were the coach. Mandela is Natnael’s friend, and Natnael understands what Mandela is going through. At the same time, Natnael found a way to contain his frustration and work hard on the team. Natnael says to Luma, “Let him go.”
When Luma drops Mandela off, she tells him that he is a good athlete, but that he doesn’t have “the discipline or the respect to play.” She tells him not to call her Coach, and not to call her again. Luma spends the next day in her apartment, not talking to anyone. She’s upset and tries to explain to St. John that she didn’t want to give up on Mandela.
Luma again makes explicit what her values are. Even though she is trying to give Mandela many chances to remain on the Fugees, without discipline or respect, he could taint the way that the rest of the team plays and works together.
Themes
