Summry for the outcasts united witten by Warren St. John - Essay Example

That same small Southern town also becomes the home to Luma Mufleh --- a Jordanian woman who establishes soccer teams to unite the children of refugee families. This woman, who was educated in the U.S., along with her players, names the team Fugees, short for refugees (St. John 31-2). The tone of the story is based on the non-consent of this small American town to be a social experiment, with the story revolving around the lives of the refugee children, their families, and their coach Luma. The author accounts the lives of these young people as they unite to form a team against the backdrop of a fading American town that is having a hard time welcoming the new arrivals.

In the middle of all the struggles and hardships encountered by the members of the team and their families, Coach Luma passionately pushes her players towards success on the field. In general, the book is an inspiring narrative of the happenings that turn a small town into a global community, and the many different ways people convert an alien world into what they could call home. The story narrates how Luma, while driving through Clarkston, sees this group of refugee boys playing soccer. She had been a soccer coach before with very little compensation, and she eventually becomes the coach for these young refugee boys.

Besides her story, the book also depicts the horrors that the refugee families went through in their escape from their war-trodden nations, the difficult adjustments they have to swallow as they try to settle in Clarkston, the issues regarding poverty, clashes with the new culture, and the high-crime rates. To make things worse, older inhabitants of the suburb town look at the situation with disinterest and contempt. The drastic changes that everyone goes through --- both the refugees and the older inhabitants --- make it difficult for them to compromise what they had been all used to.

One of the exceedingly touching and wonderful moments in the story is when Coach Luma calls together her teams of young soccer players, with everyone showing up looking raggedy --- one wearing ankle-high boots, one in socks, some in jeans, and almost all without proper footwear. These players compose three teams of mixed age ranges who, along with their families, endured unthinkable horrors to still be able to stand on that field that day. Yet despite the kids’ unimaginable backgrounds, coach Luma maintains her disciplinarian approach towards them --- laying down the rules that she expects everyone to follow seriously if one is keen on staying with the team.

The kids are expected to come to practice twice a week despite the fact that only a few of these kids’ families have cars. The boys will miss a game for every practice missed and will be kicked off the team if the rules are not followed. Luma even makes the boys sign a contract regarding the rules that run from being usual to obscure. None of these rules is negotiable. With all the talk about bringing about social change through sports, the Fugees are still able to offer an extraordinary and touching example.

In one scene narrated in the book, without anyone else telling them so, the boys offer one Muslim and one Christian prayer just prior to a game event. This shows how the boys are opening up to the accommodation of their differences in order to enjoy a common goal, while at the same time learning