Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Darius the Great Is Not Okay, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
Family
Persian Identity and Culture
Mental Health, Depression, and Connection
Bullying
Summary
Analysis
Nobody showers after gym class at home, so Darius is alarmed and tries to refuse when Sohrab pulls out soap and two towels for them. Embarrassed—Sohrab is in great shape—Darius wraps the towel around his waist to take off his shorts and boxers. Sohrab leads him to the showers with his own towel over his shoulder. When Darius sees that the showers don’t have stalls, his skin prickles and it feels hard to breathe. Like Sohrab, Hossein and Ali-Reza are both lean and muscular. Darius feels huge in comparison, but he hangs up his towel and steps under a showerhead. He won’t let these guys see him have a panic attack.
Since starting antidepressants, Darius has been made to feel bad for gaining weight—despite weight gain being a common side effect of these medications. This contributes to the immense anxiety he feels at the prospect of showering with guys who are all thinner and fitter than he is, highlighting how Darius’s depression (and how others respond to it) keeps him from feeling comfortable around others sometimes.
Themes
Darius can barely hear the other guys as he scrubs at his grass stains. Finally after a whispered argument with Ali-Reza and Hossein, Sohrab hesitantly asks what’s wrong with Darius’s penis; it looks different. Darius says he’s not circumcised. He thinks he’s never been more mortified—until Ali-Reza says Darius’s penis looks like the Ayatollah’s turban (the Ayatollah is Iran’s Supreme Cleric, and he wears a dark turban). The other boys laugh in Farsi, and then Sohrab says, “Ayatollah Darioush.” Darius thought Sohrab was different, and he’s sure now that Dad is right: Darius will always be a target. Trying to hide his tears, Darius towels off. Dad made it clear that Darius couldn’t say it, even as a joke, but Darius wants to die—or at least slip into a black hole forever. As Darius leaves the bathroom, Ali-Reza calls him “Ayatollah.”
The already anxiety-inducing shower turns into a humiliating fiasco when Sohrab and his friends make fun of Darius’s penis. It’s particularly hurtful that Sohrab joins his friends in picking on Darius, since thus far he’s gone out of his way to make Darius feel welcome. This suggests that there might be more to Sohrab’s choice to join in here than meets the eye—it’s very unlikely that Sohrab tricked Darius into coming just so he could pick on him. And being so cruelly teased just confirms Darius’s fears that nobody wants or likes him, and that he’s destined to be alone and friendless forever.
Themes
