Darius The Great Is Not-Okay

Have you ever felt like you don’t meet people’s expectations? Or that nobody has ever truly understood you? Try being Darius and dealing with all of this along with going to a place that he doesn’t feel at home in. “Darius The Great Is Not Okay” by Adib Khorram is a story about a teenage boy getting bullied whilst also battling depression. Darius struggles with changes from many scenes like when Darius doesn’t feel seen until his best friend Sohrab defends him, his father betrays a sacred tradition in Darius’s eyes, and when Darius is compared to whom he is named after and feels like he isn’t meeting his culture's expectations.

The first of Darius’s transformative moments is when his father finds him after he had just gotten into a big fight

Then, while he is crying his father comes beside him and starts asking him what is wrong, and why is he crying. So, Darius, who doesn’t have that good of a relationship with him at the time, keeps on asking him to leave and to just go away. Darius, as seen in previous arguments between him and his father, believes that he is not good enough and isn't the child that his dad wanted to have. However, his father claims, “I loved you more every day. - watching you learn to cope with a world I can’t always protect you from. But I wish I could” (284). This helps Darius realize that most of their arguments were because they didn’t understand how the other was feeling. While Darius always thought his father was strict because he didn't like Darius but because he loved him. Also, how his father thought Darius was just being dramatic, but how his words honestly did affect him. As the conversation goes on they start talking about how His dad had a rally bad year of depression when Darius was

They go to see architecture and statues that are of old heroes etc, and they come across the statue of Darius the Great, whom Darius was named after. Darius at this point in the book still felt like a bit of an outsider, because he hadn’t felt all too connected to his culture. Then, his grandfather stated, “Darioush was a great man. Strong. Smart. Brave” (158). His Grandfather is talking about the person Darius was named after. Darius feels inadequate compared to this great person he was named after. This scene in the book really illuminates how Darius feels as though he is not connected to his culture as much as everyone around him is or wants him to be. Something else that also makes you think he is feeling this way is when he thinks, “Sohrab had grown up with this history all sound him. He knew where he was from. There was no ancient emperor for him to measure up to” (159). This showcases how he almost always feels not as connected to his culture as he should. He places these imaginary expectations on himself that he feels like everyone else also holds him up to, and when they’re not met he feels inadequate. In conclusion, Darius feels inadequate to the expectation that his culture and family place on me, and struggles not to self deprecate under