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Sins of the Father
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
Before dawn, Darius wakes up to a beautiful chanting voice in the distance. Mom enters Darius’s room and confirms that it was the azan, the call to prayer—she missed hearing it. Just then, the Dancing Fan falls over, and Mom marvels that Babou still has the fan. She tells Darius to get up so they can leave soon. Soon after, Darius and Dad are outside waiting while Mom, Mamou, and Laleh are still inside, yelling. Babou pulls the car, a boxy blue minivan that belches black smoke, around. Mamou deposits Laleh in the car and Mom gives Darius snacks. Both women run back inside and Babou follows, all three of them shouting. Darius asks Dad if it’s okay for Babou to drive the six hours in his condition, but Dad shushes Darius. Maybe that’s why everyone is in a bad mood. Finally, they’re ready to go.
Babou seemingly has a habit of keeping objects long past when they perhaps need to be fixed or replaced, as evidenced both by the Dancing Fan (which has clearly been around for some time, if Mom remembers the fan being a menace when she last lived in Iran) and the van in poor condition. To Mom, though, this is just one of Babou’s quirks. Darius also senses that his family members are perhaps giving Babou more leeway due to his brain tumor than they might otherwise. So, Darius observes that people tiptoe around Babou to try to make him feel better and more useful.
Themes
Babou picks Sohrab up in front of his house and the journey begins. Babou’s driving is terrible and frightening, though Dad seems right at home. The six-hour journey takes four and a half hours. At Persepolis, Darius discovers that ticket offices are pretty much the same everywhere—though Babou sweats as he haggles over the admission fee. Mom finally shoves money at the cashier, shocking the cashier, while Darius compliments Laleh’s headscarf to stop her from fidgeting. Laleh takes Babou’s hand to enter the bazaar, and Sohrab tells Darius that he’s a great brother. It’s nice to hear, though it’s not really true.
Mom is only willing to put up with her dad’s eccentricities so much—it’s absurd, her behavior suggests, to expect to haggle for ticket prices at such a huge attraction as Persepolis. Mom has, in this sense, become more American—the cashier’s shock suggests her behavior is unexpected. And keep in mind that Darius isn’t a reliable narrator, so readers should take it with a grain of salt when he says he’s not a great brother. He’s keeping Laleh entertained and on track, which is objectively helpful in this situation.
Themes
Laleh escapes Babou’s grasp as they reach the ruins, and Sohrab and Darius jog to keep up with her. They stop, awed, when they see the ruins. Dad pulls out his sketchbook to draw some broken pillars, while Sohrab shows Darius a statue of a lamassu (a traditional Persian “mishmash animal”). It’s supposed to flank the Gate of All Nations, which is no longer a gate but is still impressive. Through the gate they reach Darioush the Great’s palace, where Mom and Mamou are waiting. Mom is upset that Dad is sketching and goes back to tell him to stop—someone will think he’s planning a drone strike. After Mom scolds him, Dad tells Darius he’s glad they’re getting to see this. Darius thinks maybe Dad is doing his best to connect.
While Dad drawing buildings would likely attract little or no negative attention in the U.S., here, Mom makes it clear that Dad needs to carefully police his behavior so as to not arouse suspicion. This points to the difficult relationship between Iran and the U.S. more broadly—and it also gives Dad a small taste of the kind of prejudice his family members experience at home. Note that here, Darius is willing to give Dad more of the benefit of the doubt and see his overtures as genuine attempts to connect. This reflects Darius’s growing maturity, as well as a potential shift in Dad’s thinking with regards to how he relates to his son.
Themes
Later in the day, Sohrab leads Darius through what’s left of the Apadana, the main palace. It’s a magical place and according to Sohrab, lots of the buildings here were unfinished when Alexander the Great sacked Persepolis. Alexander the Great, Darius decides, was the Trent Bolger of the ancient world. When Dad pulls out his sketchbook again to draw some arches, he explains to Sohrab that he’s an architect. Darius wants to say so much to Dad. He wants to know if the ruins remind him of Vulcan and invite Dad to explore, but he doesn’t know how. Instead, he leads Sohrab away. Sohrab reveals that he’d like to be an architect or a civil engineer, but that’s not easy for a Bahá’í. He doesn’t explain what he means.
Here, Darius essentially decides that bullying has existed for millennia—Alexander the Great sacked Persepolis in 330 B.C.E. However, the tone here is more of a shrug that this is just the way things always have been and always will be, which further explains Darius’s belief that he can’t escape bullies like Trent. Once again, Darius’s discomfort speaking openly with people prevents him from connecting to Dad. And Sohrab alludes here to the fact that the Iranian government systematically denies Bahá’ís education, so Sohrab has fewer options when it comes to higher education.
Themes
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Darius and Sohrab find Laleh and Babou in front of an ornate carved wall depicting a bearded man on a throne. Babou says it’s Darius—Darioush the Great. He was a great man who was smart and brave. Darius doesn’t feel smart or brave, but Babou says that Mom and Dad chose a good name. Then, throwing an arm around Darius’s shoulders, he says it’s important for Darius to know where he comes from. This is confusing: yesterday Darius wasn’t Persian enough because of his depression and his fancy teas, but today, Babou is trying to connect. Maybe Babou has Mood Slingshot Maneuvers, too. As Babou walks away, Sohrab says Babou is right. Darius isn’t sure what to say. Sohrab grew up here, knowing who he is and without an ancient emperor to measure up to. But Sohrab puts an arm around Darius and says it’s okay.
What Darius seems to miss here is that at Persepolis, Babou gets to be the expert. He’s introducing his grandson to a historical site that’s close to his heart, and for now, he also gets to say what makes sense to him about Darioush the Great. When it comes to Darius’s depression and his teas, Babou isn’t an expert—he understands neither. He is, in a sense, trying to see the Darius he wants to see here, and this is confusing for Darius. But Sohrab’s friendship helps Darius feel okay with this strange interaction, as Sohrab makes Darius feel like it’s just fine to have complicated, conflicting emotions about all he’s experiencing.
Themes
