77 pages • 2 hours read
Adib KhorramDarius the Great Is Not Okay
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 17-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Dessert Capital of the Ancient World”
Darius emerges from his room, taking his present of specialty tea to his grandmother in the kitchen. Mamou thanks him, saying he’s “sweet” like his father, which shocks Darius: “No one had ever called Stephen Kellner sweet” (126). She then offers him qottab—a kind of pastry. It’s Darius’s favorite of Iran’s many desserts, but he can’t have it often because he has struggled with his weight since starting antidepressants.
As the family settles down to tea and qottab, there’s a knock at the door. Nervously, Darius goes to answer it and finds that it is in fact Sohrab; he's returning Darius’s sneakers, which he forgot in his hurry to leave. Darius lets him in so that he can fetch the cleats, reluctantly introducing Sohrab to his father and sister. Sohrab follows Darius to his bedroom and apologizes for making fun of him. Darius claims that it isn’t important, but Sohrab continues, explaining that he’d been relieved not to be Ali-Reza's target for once, but that he shouldn’t have joined in the teasing: “I was very rude. And I am sorry. Will you give me another chance?” (131). Darius accepts the apology, and the two decide to be friends.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Sins of the Father”
Sohrab stays for dinner, during which Babou directs several pointed comments at Darius’s father; he remarks, for instance, that Stephen eats “the American way” (134)—i.e. with a knife and fork rather than a fork and spoon. Meanwhile, Sohrab asks Darius about his school: what classes he likes, whether he has a lot of friends, and (to Darius’s embarrassment) whether Javaneh is his girlfriend. Sohrab points out that Javaneh’s last name means “from Isfahan,” and Babou scolds Darius’s mother for not teaching him Farsi. Before leaving, Sohrab tells Darius that Mamou invited him to come with the family to Persepolis the next day. He offers to decline, but Darius says he wants Sohrab to join them.
Darius goes looking for the computer in the hopes of watching Star Trek, but his mother points out that the show likely wouldn’t make it past the censors. They chat about Darius’s impressions of Iran and look at the family photos hanging on the walls. While returning a teacup to the kitchen, Darius runs into Babou, who is skeptical of the tea Darius brought and insists on teaching him to make Persian-style tea—something Darius already knows how to do. While they’re brewing the tea, Darius’s father comes in to take his medication, growing flustered when Babou asks him about it. He then invites Darius to watch Star Trek, which he has saved on his iPad; however, when Darius goes to join him, he sees his father sitting with his arm around Laleh. Darius sits next to his father, who pulls him closer, but Darius remains distracted by Laleh’s presence: “I thought I would get to keep that bit of Dad to myself for a little while longer” (144).
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Kolinahr Discipline”
Darius wakes early to the azan: the Islamic call to prayer. Half an hour later, the family piles into Babou’s minivan, stops by Sohrab’s house, and then heads for Persepolis. The trip would normally take six hours, but Babou drives so fast that they arrive in four-and-a-half. At the ticket office, Babou tries to haggle for a lower price—something Darius describes as “another Persian Social Cue” (150-151)—but Darius’s mother grows impatient and hands the cashier a wad of money. Babou takes Laleh and walks on ahead.
When the rest of the family reaches the ruins, Stephen takes out his sketchbook, while Sohrab shows Darius a pair of lamassus (sphinxlike statues) and the palace of Darius the First (i.e. Darius the Great). Here, they catch up with Mamou and Shirin, who tells Darius to find his father; when he does, she warns her husband that people will find his sketching suspicious. Stephen bumps elbows with his son and tells him he’s glad he can see Iran. Sohrab and Darius walk into the Apadana (the main palace), where Darius’s father again begins drawing. Sohrab asks him about it, and is excited to learn that he’s an architect; he later tells Darius that he wants to become an architect or civil engineer himself, but that completing the necessary amount of school can be difficult for Bahá'ís.
The boys eventually catch up with Laleh and Babou, who points out a relief of Darius the Great. As Darius worries that he’ll never live up to his namesake, Babou continues: “Mamou thought it was too much driving to come here. To see this. But it’s important for you to know where you come from” (158). Noticing that Darius is still uncomfortable after Babou leaves, Sohrab slings an arm over his shoulder and assures him that he understands.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Bette Davis Eyes”
On the way back to Yazd, Babou slows the car down, argues with Mamou in Farsi, and abruptly pulls to a stop. Darius’s father takes over driving, relying on Mamou for directions. Confused, Darius turns to Sohrab, who explains in an undertone that Babou forgot the route home.
After dropping Sohrab off, the family returns home. As Stephen tries to comfort Shirin, Darius—unsure of what to do—makes tea and brings it to the sunroom, where Babou and Laleh are preparing herbs. Babou points out a picture of Darius’s mother, remarking that she “did well” in marrying who she did (164), but that Stephen, Darius, and Laleh aren’t Zoroastrian: “I was used to being a disappointment to Dad, and being a disappointment to Babou didn’t seem that different. But I hated that he was disappointed in Laleh too, for something she couldn’t change” (164). Darius wishes he could say something to reassure Babou.
Back out in the kitchen, Mamou compliments Darius on adding a pinch of cinnamon to the tea. She asks if Darius enjoyed Persepolis, and says that while she wishes he could stay in Iran, she’s glad he has the chance to live in America. When Darius asks about Babou, she smiles sadly; Darius hugs her and then helps her with the dishes before going to bed.
Chapters 17-20 Analysis
Issues of identity, heritage, and parent-child relationships once again take center stage in these chapters. As Darius spends more time around Babou, he becomes increasingly aware of the fact that his grandfather is concerned with passing his culture on to his children and grandchildren. This need is made even more pressing by both Babou’s advancing illness (which Khorram reminds readers of in Chapter 20), and that his daughter Shirin married and had children with an American. Babou resents Stephen because he isn’t Zoroastrian, as Darius explains: “Zoroastrianism is patrilineal, which meant that even though Mom had inherited Babou’s religion, she couldn’t pass it on to me and Laleh” (133).
As a result, Babou is agitated to discover that his daughter hasn’t done what he views as the bare minimum—teach Darius Farsi—to preserve his legacy, and he takes it upon himself to educate his grandson about his ancestry and identity. However, his attempts to do so have the ironic effect of making Darius less secure than ever in his heritage; he describes Babou’s lesson on making Persian tea as one the “most humiliating moment[s] of [his] life” (141). Darius particularly shies away from references to his namesake, Darius the Great. For instance, while looking at a relief of Darius I in Persepolis, Darius cites his mixed ancestry as evidence of his inadequacy as an Iranian: “I was certain I would never be able to grow a beard so luxurious as the one hewn into the wall above me. Stephen Kellner’s fair-haired Teutonic genes would prevent it” (157).
Darius’s uncertainty regarding his claims to Persian identity provides an opening for him to identify with his father. Stephen’s interactions with his in-laws cast him in a light that Darius has never seen before; although Darius has previously noted his father’s inability to speak Farsi, this and other markers of Stephen’s outsider status are brought forcibly home during the dinner in Chapter 18. As Darius observes, Stephen’s tense and embarrassed reaction to Babou’s thinly veiled criticisms turns his typical familial role on its head: “Dad’s ears looked a little pink. It was like looking into a distorted mirror at one of our family dinners, with Stephen Kellner playing me and Babou playing Stephen Kellner” (134). Mamou’s remark that Darius is “sweet” like his father also reaffirms that he is his father’s son, in a more positive way. For Darius, all of this pales in comparison to Stephen’s willingness to allow Laleh to watch Star Trek with them; the show is perhaps the most obvious thing holding Stephen and Darius’s fragile relationship together, so Darius interprets Stephen’s actions as a betrayal.
