Observation Of Darling's Obedience In Yosepolis

As explored through Darling’s observation in Budapest, an authoritative body requires obedience from a target population to exercise control. After arriving at Budapest to steal guavas, the children meet a guard for the first time in Budapest. The arrogant and lofty English-speaking guard constantly commands the children to leave Budapest, for example stating, “I demand that you wipe it off right now” when Bastard spits on the street (108). Yet in the eyes of the children, “Everything about him looks like a joke and [they] know he is a waste of time” (107). Because the children, especially Bastard, are not fearful and do not respect the guard’s authoritative position, the guard’s commands are disobeyed. After meeting the guard, the children watch

In response, the angered White man demands that Africa is his country too. In this case, the Assistant Police Commissioner is able to influence his subordinates to raid the White household. The White man, whose authority has no obedient population, further becomes a part of Obey Marima’s population once he accepts his situation and “doesn’t run away” (122). Later, at the broken-down house, Darling answers a phone call, recalling, “He tells me that I should put the phone back and that we should get out of the house” (131). Feeling a sense of respect and formality, Darling partly obeys the man’s commands, placing the phone back where she found it, but doesn’t “tell the others what the man said about getting out of the house” (131). This resembles another case of the requirement of an obedient population, in this case Darling, to have control. As observed in Budapest, the varying degrees of obedience-- rather complete, fractionally, or non-existent-- all determine an authoritative body’s ability to exercise