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The Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities
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
When Darius gets to the bike rack after work, his bike’s wheels and seat are missing—and where the seat was is a pair of blue rubber testicles. It’s obvious who did it, and unfortunately, now Darius has to call Dad for a ride. Dad answers with his usual “Is everything okay?” (he never greets Darius first), and then, to Darius’s humiliation, explains what truck nuts are. He agrees to come get Darius and sighs with disappointment when Darius admits he forgot to pick up the goldfish.
It seems like Darius is correct that Trent left the testicles on his bike, given that Trent’s bullying earlier was mostly related to testicles. As with Mr. Apatan’s obliviousness though, Darius’s humiliation and powerlessness ramps up when Dad explains what truck nuts are (people sometimes hang them on truck hitches to make the truck and driver seem more masculine). Rather than validating Darius’s feelings, Dad instead makes Darius feel embarrassed and alone.
Themes
Though he’s only a 10-minute drive away, Dad and his beloved Audi arrive 30 minutes later. After they load Darius’s bike, Darius slumps in the front seat with the bag of goldfish and tells Dad that Trent Bolger stole his seat and wheels. As Dad careens around the parking lot, Darius gives him a cursory explanation of Trent’s visit to work, leaving out any mention of testicles. True to form, Dad asks how Darius knows it was Trent—and suggests that if Darius stood up for himself, bullies would leave him alone. Dad then declares that Darius’s almost shoulder-length hair needs to be cut.
Dad’s actions speak loudly: as Darius sees it, Dad doesn’t care about him enough to show up right away when such a thing is possible. His words do as well, as Dad essentially proposes that Trent bullies Darius because Darius lets him. And while there may be some truth to the idea that ignoring a bully can deprive them of some power, Dad is missing the fact that Darius can’t ignore Trent at work, where Trent can act like a customer and torment Darius as much as he pleases.
Themes
Dad’s hair is short and blond, and he has blue eyes. He’s basically “the Übermensch.” Darius, on the other hand, looks like Mom: black, curly hair and brown eyes. “Standard Persian.” It makes Dad uncomfortable when people say he has “Aryan looks,” since the word used to mean noble and now means “something different.” Aryan is, according to Mom, also the root word for Iran. Darius gets uncomfortable when he thinks about being “half Aryan and half Aryan.” It’s weird how a word’s meaning can change so much. And sometimes, Darius doesn’t feel like Dad’s son.
The Übermensch, which roughly translates to “ideal man,” is an idea that the philosopher Nietzsche proposed in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Using it to refer to Dad highlights how perfect Darius thinks Dad is—and in contrast, how poorly Darius thinks about himself. As he talks about the term “Aryan,” Darius also references Adolph Hitler’s use of the term, which has become associated with white supremacy. Feeling caught between the two meanings of Aryan highlights how uncomfortable Darius is with his identity at this point.
Themes
