77 pages • 2 hours read
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
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Chapters 31-35Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary: “Chelo Kabob”
A few days later, Darius walks into the kitchen and finds Mamou busy making chelo kabob—an all-day enterprise his family normally reserves for special occasions. Darius largely stays out of the way as his parents help Mamou, though he does join Babou in setting tables up outside. Babou then instructs Darius to go tell Sohrab’s mother to bring more sabzi (a mix of fresh herbs) when she and Sohrab come to dinner. He does, and finds Sohrab in the backyard practicing soccer: “I had underestimated Sohrab’s dedication to soccer/non-American football” (258). Although surprised, Darius accepts Sohrab’s invitation to play for a while.
Later that evening, as everyone is gathered in the backyard eating, Darius goes to the kitchen to get seconds for himself and Sohrab. His father is also there, “fielding advice and criticism about kabob preparation from all the Bahrami men” (261). Darius momentarily feels a sense of solidarity with him, but it evaporates when Stephen shares his own tricks for making kabob, and the other men express approval.
Chapter 32 Summary: “The Virgo Supercluster”
Darius watches as his father, grandfather, and uncles begin a game of Rook, wondering how his father fits in so well. Sohrab eventually finds Darius and persuades him to sit down with Soheil’s sons, Parviz and Navid. Sohrab has been telling Darius’s cousins how good Darius is at soccer; as Darius listens, he “[gives] Parvis and Navid a complete play-by-play of [their] latest game […] glossing over the passes [Darius] missed and exaggerating all the saves [he] pulled off” (263). Afterwards, Navid, Parviz, and Sohrab begin to teach Darius how to play Rook; Darius plays badly but enjoys himself.
After the guests leave, Darius says goodnight to Mamou and goes to his room: “I kind of wished Dad wasn’t playing Rook. Maybe I could have convinced him to watch an episode of Star Trek. Just the two of us” (265). Instead, he looks at the cleats he plans to give Sohrab, wondering whether he should save them for a going-away present. His mother happens to look in on him and praises him for being a good friend. They chat about the evening, and Darius admits that he’ll miss Iran when they have to leave, though he doesn’t say just how much he’s dreading it.
Chapter 33 Summary: “The Age of Bahramis”
As the family gets ready to visit the Atashkadeh (a Zoroastrian Fire Temple), Babou struggles to fit a white cap over Darius’s hair. Once Darius is fully dressed, however, Babou says he looks nice: “He looked me in the eyes from time to time, like he was looking for something, and thought maybe—just maybe—I had it in me after all” (269). The family arrives at the Atashkadeh, which contains a fire that has been burning for a millennium and a half; Mamou and Babou stay behind in the car, because Babou suddenly feels ill. As Darius stands inside the temple, Darius thinks he can sense his ancestors’ presence.
Babou and Mamou go to their room after returning home. Meanwhile, Darius finds his mother in the sunroom; she has obviously been crying, and is now looking at old photos. In one, Darius’s father has a ponytail, and she talks about how Babou insisted he cut it before the wedding. Another photo features Darius’s father lying with a baby on his chest; Darius assumes it’s Laleh, but his mother tells him that it’s him. She says it’s her favorite photo of them, and starts crying as she comments on how much Darius’s father “loves being a dad” (273). Darius says he’s sorry and hugs her.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Magnetic Containment”
Darius goes to play soccer with Sohrab one last time, taking the new cleats with him. However, when he knocks on Sohrab’s door, there’s no response. Darius goes around to the back door, where Sohrab’s uncle lets him in, looking sad. Darius then sees Sohrab’s mother sitting on the couch sobbing as Sohrab hugs her. Still confused about what’s going on, Darius offers to make tea, and Sohrab yells at him to leave. Sohrab’s uncle takes Darius aside to the kitchen but can’t explain what’s happening. Sohrab then appears and says that his father is dead: “They say he was stabbed. In prison” (278). Noticing the box Darius has left on the counter, Sohrab asks what it is. Darius awkwardly explains, and Sohrab erupts, accusing Darius of being self-absorbed: “Go away, Darioush,’ he said […] “No one wants you here” (279). Sohrab storms off, and Darius runs out of the house.
Chapter 35 Summary: “First, Best Destiny”
Darius blindly makes his way to the park rooftop he and Sohrab have often visited. In tears and wishing he could disappear, he thinks about how everything Sohrab has accused him of is true. Darius’s father eventually finds him and climbs up on to the roof, explaining that Sohrab’s uncle told him what happened. He tries to hug Darius, but Darius flinches away as his father urges him not to cry, bitterly apologizing for being a disappointment. Stephen protests that he just wants to make sure Darius’s depression doesn’t get out of hand, but Darius continues: “You don’t want me to feel anything at all. You just want me to be normal. Like you […] You won’t even watch Star Trek with me anymore […] I’ll never be good enough for you” (283).
Stephen says that Darius has always been “good enough”: He has always loved and been proud of him. Darius demands to know why he stopped telling bedtime stories, and his father awkwardly explains that he was suicidally depressed at the time, and had to be put on strong tranquilizers: “I lost myself for a long time, Darius. […] And by the time I was doing better and Dr. Howell tapered me off, your sister was born and I just...things were different. […] I didn’t know if you even wanted stories anymore. If you were ever going to forgive me” (285-286). Stephen goes on to explain that he has always struggled with how to handle his son’s depression, worried that he might become suicidal as well. He apologizes and hugs Darius, and then listens as Darius talks about the pain of fighting with, and potentially losing, his friend.
Chapters 31-35 Analysis
Darius and Sohrab are foils for one another: Darius is tall where Sohrab is short, reserved where Sohrab is demonstrative, moody where Sohrab is (generally) cheerful, etc. The trajectory of their storylines underscores these contrasts, with Sohrab losing his father just as Darius reconciles with his own.
Narratively, these two events are closely linked, as it’s Darius’s fight with Sohrab that leads to his heart-to-heart conversation with his father. The argument is devastating to Darius for many reasons, not the least of which is that Sohrab’s words confirm many of Darius’s worst fears about himself—for instance, that he “do[es] nothing but complain” even though he’s “never had anything to be sad about in [his] life” (279). In addition, the following exchange between Darius and his father implies that Darius is in love with Sohrab: When Darius responds to his father’s remark that he “really love[s] Sohrab” by affirming that he’s his best friend, Stephen “look[s] at [Darius] for a long moment. Like he kn[ows] there [is] more,” and like “he kn[ows], without [Darius] saying it out loud, that [he] [isn’t] ready to talk about more” (287).
However, what’s most painful about the falling-out is that Sohrab was the first person Darius trusted to see him at his lowest points: As he puts it, “No one [else] ever made me feel like it was okay to cry” (281). In the wake of the argument, Darius is once more left feeling that the only appropriate way of handling his depression is to pretend that it doesn’t exist. This is part of what makes his father’s admission so important; it explains why he has seemed to (in Darius’s eyes) discourage him from having feelings and tacitly acknowledges that this was the wrong approach. In opening up about his depression, Stephen begins to normalize a healthier approach to mental illnesses and emotions in general—one that provides space for pain and setbacks, acknowledging that “[it]’s okay not to be okay” (286).
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