Sooley

“Watching Will Smith race through the streets in a sports car with a slinky woman on his arm was certainly entertaining. And Samuel, along with the other nineteen players, believed in his soul that it was not just a dream. The Miami Heat were currently paying Niollo $15 million a year to play basketball, money they could not comprehend.”

Samuel’s first exposure to the excess of American culture comes through this film. While the lifestyle is incomprehensible, he still aspires to it. This moment also suggests that media plays a role in shaping Samuel’s values, as films like this depict an unrealistic (and unhealthy) image of what a wealthy lifestyle looks like, and Samuel pursues that image when approached by Arnie Savage.

“The leader of the gang was in the middle of the road firing at the sky. Beside him were two others, just boys, probably Samuel’s age or younger, dressed in their best imitation of real soldiers, a hodgepodge of leather ammo belts and guns on both hips, along with their rifles. One wore a white cowboy hat. One had on basketball shoes.”

Samuel’s first direct encounter with the violence of the ongoing civil war comes right after he has earned his place on Ecko’s team and potentially found his way out. That one boy is wearing basketball shoes portends Samuel’s future if he were to stay in South Sudan, an idea reinforced when the government soldiers suggest that the rebels usually force boys his age to join them.

“All were identical, all were equal. In practice, everyone would wear the same shorts, socks, and shirts. Nothing else. No bandanas, no sweat bands, nothing to draw attention to the individual. They were a team of equals, with no stars and no scrubs.”

This is one of the instances that demonstrates the text’s preoccupation with the idea of equality. The second instance comes when the children in the refugee camp receive school uniforms, and that passage uses phrasing very similar to that seen here—and both instances occur in South Sudan. The parallel stands out because, everywhere else, the text goes out of its way to emphasize inequalities. Even here, however, the idea of the teammates being equals is false. There is already an established hierarchy of players, and this becomes evident in America when the scouts are interested in only a couple of Ecko’s players.

“It would be a notch in Ecko’s belt, were he to win or place, something to add to his résumé as he dreamed of a head coaching job. But it wasn’t called a showcase for nothing. It was more about the players and the scouts there to watch them, and boys’ dreams of playing in America.”

Competitive sports present a tension between individual and team goals, and this extends to the coaching staff. Ecko has career goals and is aware of what he needs to do to achieve them, but in this case, that runs counter to his desire to give all the boys an equal chance to play at the showcase tournament. Playing only his best players would probably ensure the team wins more games, which would reflect well on Ecko. However, this would deprive some of his players of their chance to earn a scholarship in America.

“Gold was a nationally known AAU program financed by a wealthy Texas businessman who loved the game, had played in college, and wanted his three sons to excel and become stars. It was his pet project and he spared no expense.”

This passage illustrates how the idea of equal opportunity is a fallacy. The financer of the Gold AAU team wants his sons to become stars, so he pays their way to success. In a competitive model that allows for such nepotism, teams and players do not start on an equal playing field and therefore cannot have equal opportunity.

“Most of the money, though, remained in Juba as the ruling elites siphoned off billions and feasted on the unlimited cash. While they stashed it in Swiss banks, and bought apartments in London and mansions in Melbourne, and sent their kids to the Ivies, and armed their soldiers with an astonishing arsenal of guns, tanks, and helicopters, the people suffered even more. The money was not used for schools, hospitals, roads, or infrastructure.”

For a text so focused on the world’s many inequalities, it rarely explores the origins or causes of that inequality. This is one of the rare examples where the text highlights that the problem is systemic in nature: Money that was intended to aid the situation did exist, but it was routed into the country in a way that allowed wealthy elites to take advantage of it for their own personal gain to the detriment of the rest of the country.

“They walked back to the suite and Frankie opened his laptop and began searching for headline news from South Sudan, but there was nothing. Evidently, massacres were so common that another one was not newsworthy. He found a site from Juba but the reports were only of a rebel attack on the city of Rumbek.”

This moment in the story is a counterpoint to how the world approaches the situation in South Sudan after Samuel becomes famous. Later, ESPN will produce an entire segment on South Sudan to broadcast before an NC Central game. Now, there’s not a single foreign newspaper with anything to say about the ongoing civil war. This shows how the media pays attention only when tragedy can be packaged as part of their product.

“Ecko moved in for the kill. ‘Here’s the deal, Samuel. We’re going to the embassy tomorrow to talk about immigration. Lonnie’s going with us and we’ll explain that you’ll be staying here and headed down to Durham. We’ll ask the embassy to pull strings and help expedite a student visa.”

The word choice of “mov[ing] in for the kill” is odd given the context that Ecko and Lonnie are stepping in to give Samuel an opportunity and a home. Nonetheless, the figurative language reveals a lot about the exploitative relationship between coaches, players, and the NCAA. Coaches put their career hopes on the players they sign, and regardless of the promises they make, they will ride their players’ success to a better-paying position—as demonstrated by Lonnie later in the novel. And while collegiate athletes do receive scholarship money, the NCAA makes over a billion dollars a year, far less than the sum of all tuitions paid.

“Lonnie moved him in, then walked with him to the football field and locker room, and introduced him to his new boss, T. Ray. For the unheard-of wage of $7.25 an hour, the state minimum wage, whatever that meant, Samuel landed his first job—assistant equipment manager of the football team.”

In a move reminiscent of something from a Dickens novel, Grisham juxtaposes the vast disparity in wealth between America and South Sudan by having a similar amount of money represent significantly different values. Before leaving, Samuel’s entire village came together to give him $10. Now, in America, Samuel is earning nearly that much money an hour—and importantly, he is making the federal minimum wage.

“‘Something like that. My father was murdered by rebel troops last month.’

‘Oh man, I’m real sorry.’

‘Thanks. It’s been pretty bad.’

‘I can’t even imagine.’

‘The website says you’re from here, Durham.’

‘That’s right. Born here.’

‘Why’d you pick Central?’

This excerpt is emblematic of Grisham’s style. There is very little room to explore a character’s inner thoughts and feelings. In this instance, Samuel and Murray blow through what could be a very difficult, emotional topic in four terse lines. Such brisk dialogue and minimalist narration have roots in Modernist literature (such as Ernest Hemingway). However, while Modernist authors sometimes use minimalism to create depth and ambiguity through meaningful omission, Grisham uses the style for different reasons. His technique maintains the novel’s relentless pace by never letting the plot get lost behind the characters.

“It gave her and the boys their first moment of privacy and sense of place in many days. After they moved in, with nothing to move, she zipped the door and windows closed and huddled with James and Chol in the complete isolation.”

While the tent itself is not the most sturdy or permanent dwelling, the privacy it affords gives it symbolic importance. After weeks of precarious living on the road, sleeping outside, and not knowing where their next meal would come from, Beatrice and her sons can finally relax a little bit. Because it can make them feel separated from everyone else in the camp, it provides a sense of home that they have not had since fleeing their village.

“[Samuel] had been in the U.S. now for almost six weeks, and on campus for the last two, and the culture shock was fading. He marveled at the students and their affluence. Every single one had a cell phone and laptop, and most of them, especially the girls, did little but stare at their screens. And the clothes. Most wore cut-offs, tee shirts, and sandals, but there seemed to be an endless supply. Murray’s small closet was filled with more shirts than any ten men had in Lotta.”

In a passage touching on themes of wealth and opportunity, Samuel is just beginning to acclimate to the United States’ relative affluence and materialistic culture. Though he is happily mesmerized by the abundance, it sometimes makes him feel like even more of an outsider. his socioeconomic perspective accentuates that he is still solidly an underdog figure.

“The disconnect seemed too far-fetched. It was difficult to believe that the nice young man rooming with their son had a mother and two brothers living in a dismal place known as the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement.”

This passage demonstrates the Absurdity of Global Inequality. For Ida, it is impossible to fathom that someone so close to her could also be connected to the abject conditions in the refugee camps. Because Samuel is no different than any of them, it highlights how random, arbitrary, and unjust this kind of misfortune is.

“One of the problems with his game, and perhaps his biggest one, was where to play? He was not going to be a guard and not ready to play forward. Lonnie had already decided to delay those worries and watch the kid develop. He would sit the upcoming season as a redshirt.”

Samuel’s positionless-ness mirrors his placeless-ness when he first arrives in America. He has lost his home and everything that was familiar to him, and finds himself in a new country and culture that he doesn’t immediately fit into. However, over time, he acclimatizes to his new life, forms strong bonds with Murray and his family, and finds renewed purpose in his efforts to reunite with his family. As this is happening, his shot improves, he grows taller and stronger, and suddenly he is ready to play forward.

“Occasionally he found photos of the Rhino Camp—Beatrice had said they were in Rhino South—and he studied the faces of hundreds of his people, hoping desperately for a glimpse of his mother, or James or Chol. He still clung to the prayer that Angelina was there, somewhere, searching for her family.”

This is the last time Angelina is mentioned in the text, meaning her fate is ultimately unknown. By refusing to give readers closure in this regard, Grisham recreates for them the experience that Samuel and his family go through, and he encourages readers to think more deeply about the pain such an endless loss might cause.

“Afterward, Coach Britt yelled in the locker room and seemed unhappy, but a 30-point win against a bunch of short, slow white boys was what it was.

Four nights later […] the Eagles hosted another mystery school that started five players who would have struggled against Central’s women’s team.”

This is another example of how stereotyping communicates information quickly but can reinforce harmful ideas. Grisham taps again into the binary assumption that Black athletes can run fast and jump high, while white athletes are slow. Elsewhere in the novel, these stereotypes include the idea that white athletes are smarter and more technical players. Additionally, using Central’s women’s team as a means of insulting the ability of the weak mystery team, Grisham also reinforces the sexist idea that men are inherently better at sports than women.

“In addition to the turkey, there would be oyster dressing with cranberry sauce. Candied yams. Collard greens in ham hocks. Corn fritters. Giblet gravy. Jalapeño cornbread. Pumpkin and pecan pies. At first, as he stuffed another pecan waffle in his mouth, he thought they were joking about so much food for one meal. Then he realized they were quite serious.

He enjoyed the rowdy bantering and warmhearted fun, but there were flashes when he couldn’t help but think of his mother and brothers, and his neighbors and friends from Lotta. Some dead. Some missing. The lucky ones barely surviving in makeshift huts, shanties, and tents, patiently waiting in line for hours for another bowl of rice.”

Grisham uses juxtaposition to emphasize the inequality between life in America and life in the camps. The long list of foods underscores the excess of American Thanksgiving—there is so much food they cannot possibly eat all of it. Meanwhile, Beatrice must wait in line for hours for a bowl of rice that is barely sufficient to sustain them.

“He landed in Kampala and was met at the airport by an old friend named Nestor Kymm, a coach of the Ugandan national team. Kymm’s brother ranked high in the government and knew which strings to pull. Early the next morning they drove to Entebbe International Airport and were directed to the cargo field far away from the main terminal. There they met a smartly dressed officer named Joseph something or other.”

Here, Ecko is able to find his way to the refugee camp through a special connection that he has, which allows him to circumvent the very real barriers that would normally exist. This indirectly advances Grisham’s commentary on the illusion of meritocracy; just as Samuel’s success relies partly on his fortuitous connections, Ecko must take advantage of his own connections. This scene also highlights the motif of luck, as it is pure luck that Ecko happens to have this leverage.

“Reading from a printout, the case manager went through a series of useless questions, most of which Samuel answered with either a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No.’ Both answers pleased the man and he made some important entries in the case file. Twenty minutes after entering the office, they quickly left and hustled outside for fresh air. The entire meeting could have easily been handled over the phone or by email in less than ten minutes.”

The text is very critical of the red tape and inefficient bureaucracy that makes it especially difficult for Samuel to reunite with his family. The meeting is largely pointless (since Samuel’s answers appear to make little difference) but takes up Samuel and Ida’s time. In the end, it is easier to extract Beatrice and her sons through an expensive covert mission than it is to go through official channels.

“Murray sat at the kitchen table with his parents and sipped a soda. No food was present. There was nothing doing on the stove or in the oven, not a whiff of the usual delicious aroma.”

For the entire novel, the defining characteristic of the Walker household has been their love and appreciation of food. There is either food ready and waiting when everyone arrives, or they affectionately bicker over its preparation. For the Walkers, food and family go together, and it makes their house feel like a welcoming home. The absence of food suggests how serious their disagreement over Samuel’s future has become.

“They were losing sleep over the prospect of Samuel leaving school and entering the draft. They had practically raised him in the past eight months and had become his family. He was a smart kid but not mature enough to make such important decisions. The money might ruin him. Sharks out there could manipulate him. The temptations would be great.”

As his surrogate mother and father and the manifestation of his hope for safety, Ida and Ernie are the only ones who really see the risk of Samuel leaving school for the NBA. While everyone else is focused on the positive things millions of dollars could bring him, they don’t lose sight of the dangers that are associated with that kind of wealth. However, by being so stubborn about it, they alienate Samuel to the point he tunes them out.

“The casual gathering gave the impression that in Arnie’s world a party such as this could materialize at a moment’s notice.”

“Impression” is the key word here. Everything about Arnie’s appearance is carefully constructed to give a very particular impression to his potential clients. He uses the allure of luxury and a life filled with nonstop parties to lure Samuel into his orbit. This is a key piece of evidence that some of the blame for Samuel’s death should fall at Arnie’s feet.

“As they killed time, Murray, Arnie, and Reynard agreed to stick together and not point fingers. Sooley had wanted to attend the festival. He wanted to celebrate and have some serious fun. It was his idea to join forces with Whitley and ask for the jet; his idea to invite the girls; his idea to stop by the last party. At some point the night before, he got some Mollies and took them. No one forced him to.”

Arnie and Reynard’s refusal to take any responsibility for Samuel’s death reveals their true colors (while Murray is included here, he feels immense guilt and later blames himself). Their implication that his death was his entirely own fault is ironic, given their unwillingness to acknowledge that their own actions also have consequences.