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Slingshot Maneuvers
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 is halfway down the stairs to the gym when he hears Chip Cusumano calling his name behind him. When Darius doesn’t wait for Chip, Chip tugs at Darius’s backpack—and the backpack splits, spilling everything but Darius’s tablet down the stairs. Chip apologizes with a goofy grin on his face and reveals that he and Trent left the tires to Darius’s bike in the bushes. Still, Darius refuses to let Chip help gather his things, so Chip says he’ll let Coach Fortes know what happened.
Darius has no reason to think that Chip is trustworthy, given his association with Trent and his willingness to bully Darius. So, even if Chip breaking Darius’s backpack is a genuine accident, it’s hard for Darius to believe this and not blame Chip for actively harming him. Still, it does seem like an accident, and Chip does a nice thing by agreeing to let Coach Fortes know why Darius is going to be late—assuming, that is, that he goes on to tell Coach the truth.
Themes
When Darius gets to the locker room, Coach Fortes shakes his head and tells Darius to get dressed. The class is learning about “Net Sports,” or badminton, ping-pong, and volleyball. Darius is horrible at net sports. He used to play soccer and is better at games where he can run. This surprises people, as Darius is overweight. That’s why Dad keeps offering Darius the salad bowl, though Darius is overweight because of the meds, not because he lacks discipline. Dad’s behavior just makes Darius feel even worse.
Weight gain is one of the most common side effects of antidepressants, which makes it somewhat surprising that Dad seems so intent on policing Darius’s weight and food. And his inability to understand why Darius is the size he is—and that being overweight for any reason isn’t a moral failing—contributes to Darius’s belief that Dad doesn’t like him and is even ashamed of him.
Themes
Darius joins the class for warm-ups and is on his third lap when Chip catches up. Chip calls Darius “D”; he can’t add the -Bag at school were there’s a Zero Tolerance Policy toward bullying. He says he was just going to tell Darius that his backpack zipper was open, and he’s sorry about Darius’s bike. Darius almost believes him. Darius is on Fatty Bolger’s team for volleyball, so Fatty has ample opportunity to make jokes about balls at Darius. Chip is on the opposing team, and he and Trent battle intensely. Darius doesn’t get it: if he had a best friend, he’d be happy for them if they won.
There’s a lot to suggest here that Chip isn’t as evil as Darius makes him out to be, especially since his apology seems genuine. As Darius watches Trent and Chip battle it out on the volleyball court, he reveals what he thinks the mark of a true friend is: being loyal and happy for a friend, rather than treating them like an enemy. So, even if Darius maintains that he doesn’t have friends at school (recall that Javaneh apparently just tolerates him), he has a firm idea of what being a good friend is all about.
Themes
When Coach tells Darius to get involved, Darius bumps the ball—and it hits a teammate in the back of the head. Trent calls Darius a “terrorist.” This doesn’t happen often as teachers always get mad if they hear a kid say that, but Darius is Middle Eastern, so it still happens. And really, “terrorist” doesn’t bother him as much as “D-Bag,” since “terrorist” is absurd. Mom claims that jokes like that don’t bug her, since Persians don’t get up early enough to bomb anything. Darius knows it does bug her, though—but if she makes fun of herself, she can get ahead of people like Fatty Bolger. Maybe the insult does bug Darius.
When Trent calls Darius a “terrorist,” he’s exposing his own ignorance—not all people who live in or are from the Middle East are terrorists, of course. Still, Darius can’t escape that he’s living in a post-9/11 world, where this kind of bigotry is unfortunately common. Both he and Mom, he realizes, have to figure out how to deal with this kind of bigotry, and here, Darius seems to realize that there’s no perfect way to do this. The insult is going to hurt either way, as it makes Darius and Mom acknowledge that there are people in Portland who believe—or at least think it’s okay to joke—that all Middle Eastern people are violent.
Themes
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