Sooley

Luck is the strongest motif in Sooley. It underlies many of the major plot beats and illuminates the theme of the Land of (In)opportunity. Despite Samuel’s obsessive hard work, it is ultimately luck (both good and bad) that dictates his journey throughout the text. In the beginning, he is lucky that his village has somehow avoided being affected by the ongoing civil war, and then he is individually lucky that he is in America when it is finally attacked. In turn, while it is certainly not a good thing that his village was attacked, it adds an extra layer of pressure on Lonnie to offer him a scholarship to at least give him a chance. Samuel works hard all season and improves tremendously, but he is also extremely fortunate to be blessed with almost supernatural athleticism and genetics that mean he continues to grow in height and stature. Moreover, it is not even his improvement on the court that results in him being given a chance—rather, it is injuries to several players and the team’s poor start that causes Lonnie to eventually turn to him in desperation. In each one of these scenarios, what happens to Samuel is completely out of his hands. But what really underscores the role of luck the most is Samuel’s death. While he does make some poor choices that lead to his eventual overdose, it is still incredibly unlucky that the first time he tries drugs he overdoses, especially once everything in his life finally seemed to turn around after he was drafted.

The lack or abundance of food symbolizes a character’s physical and emotional safety in Sooley. This symbolism is especially central for Samuel and Beatrice. When Lotta is destroyed, Beatrice flees into the wilderness of South Sudan with her sons and a few others who escaped. They wander for days with no food, find a camp with no room and receive muddy water and crusts of bread, and then finally find the Rhino Camp, where they spend the majority of the novel. While Beatrice’s physical safety is obviously under threat here, food also symbolizes her emotional safety. The days spent wandering are her lowest point. When her group reaches Rhino Camp and begins receiving rice, she gets her “first moment of privacy and sense of place in many days” (136), which shows the emotional comfort being settled offers, however scant it may be.

Samuel, in America, almost never wants for food in a serious way, but its presence or absence in scenes still speaks to his safety. He eats homecooked meals at Lonnie’s and the Walkers’ early on, indicating that these are places of comfort for him and people he can rely on to take care of him. However, later in the novel, when he and the Walkers part ways over his decision to join the NBA draft, food is conspicuously missing. Grisham calls attention to the lack of “usual delicious aroma” (324), and Samuel not only loses a vital element of his support system but dies soon after. This shows the symbolic role of food for Samuel and the book as a whole.