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
Darius wakes up to taps and squeaks, the Dancing Fan face down on the floor. He sees a human shape pass his window outside. Darius gets dressed, finds the kitchen, and then steps out into the backyard. After blinking in the bright sunlight, Darius sees that Babou is climbing a ladder leaned on the house, which is right next to Darius’s bedroom window. He’s wearing dress clothes and doesn’t look sick. Darius tries to say hello, but he can only squeak a little bit—he pictured this meeting going differently. Finally, Babou reaches the roof and shouts for someone named Sohrab. A boy about Darius’s age is unknotting a hose near a shed. Babou finally notices Darius, greets him, and tells him to help Sohrab.
Everything about Darius and Babou’s first meeting is unsettling, from the ominous shadow passing his window to Babou treating Darius so nonchalantly—to say nothing of elderly, ill Babou tottering around on the roof. Part of Darius’s task, then, is to figure out who Babou actually is and how to interact with the grandfather in front of him, not the version of Babou that lives in his mind and may or may not line up with reality.
Themes
Sohrab is short, lean, and has brown eyes that make Darius think brown eyes maybe aren’t so boring. Darius greets him with the traditional “salaam,” and then says in Farsi he knows little Farsi. Smiling, Sohrab says English is fine. Awkwardly, Darius asks if they’re related, which is a normal question to ask a fellow Persian. Sohrab says he lives close, which is revelatory for Darius—he’d never considered that Mamou and Babou have neighbors. Finally, Sohrab finishes untangling the hose, points it at Darius, and squeezes the sprayer handle. Darius shouts, but nothing happens—the hose isn’t on. Sohrab apologizes, smiling, and Darius finds he can’t glare at him. They both laugh, and Darius decides he likes Sohrab.
Darius’s interest in Sohrab is palpable from the moment he says that Sohrab’s brown eyes are intriguing. Sohrab also makes Darius feel secure and welcome when he doesn’t make Darius feel bad for not speaking much Farsi, and then later when he’s willing to joke about the hose. At the same time, Darius is learning that Mamou and Babou are more than talking heads on a video chat screen: they’re members of their community, with neighbors and friends and possibly enemies.
Themes
For readers, Darius explains that every Iranian person knows a Sohrab. It’s a very common name that comes from a story in the Shahnahmeh, a book of Persian fables and legends. In the story, Sohrab’s father accidentally kills him in battle, which may explain why all Persian boys try so hard to please their fathers. But Darius also wonders if all dads secretly want to kill their sons a little bit—maybe that even explains Dad.
On one hand, Darius suggests it’s a uniquely Persian thing for a son to try to earn his dad’s approval. But on the other, Darius sees that the contours of Sohrab’s story in the Shahnahmeh may apply to sons and fathers of all ethnicities—even Dad, the “Teutonic Übermensch.” Dad and Darius’s fraught relationship, in this sense, might not be so unique.
Themes
Darius helps Sohrab drag the hose over to Babou and shrugs when Sohrab asks if Darius likes figs (Darius doesn’t, unlike all other Persians). Sohrab explains that Babou grows the best figs in Yazd, though they won’t be ripe until summer. Darius turns the hose on when Babou asks him to, and then he and Sohrab watch Babou totter across the roof and water his fig trees. Noticing how tense Darius is, Sohrab tells him to relax. He acknowledges that Babou shouldn’t be doing this, but he does it every week and they just have to watch.
Once again, Darius presents it as fact that all Persian people like figs, when this almost certainly isn’t true. However, Darius uses this belief to seemingly suggest he’s less Persian and therefore fits in less than he’d like to. Sohrab then gives Darius an important lesson in letting go and giving people autonomy, something that, interestingly, Dad is unwilling to do when it comes to Darius. Dad should, this suggests, let Darius make his own choices, as Mom suggested in the Dubai airport.
Themes
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