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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
Tea
Darius has perfected the art of choosing, making, and serving the right tea for the moment. Whenever Darius doesn't know what to do, he makes tea. At home he makes it for his parents, and he makes it with ice and sugar for his little sister Laleh. Making tea is Darius’s way of connecting and showing love. He brings fine tea as a gift for Mamou, and he even offers tea to his bully, Trent, in an attempt to diffuse his cruelty in the novel’s first chapter. Domineering Babou even tries to connect with Darius by teaching him how to make tea the Persian way. Mamou seems to quickly understand that Darius connects with others through making and drinking tea. Without needing to be told, she often asks him to make her a cup and then compliments it and asks him questions about his tea-making process.
The Lord of the Rings
Darius often compares people and places to characters and settings from J.R.R Tolkein’s epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings. He compares himself, for example, to Frodo, the protagonist of the series. Like Frodo and the Hobbits, Darius is on a quest, learning about himself and gaining confidence along the way. It’s no coincidence that The Lord of the Rings is the book he takes to accompany him on his journey to Iran. In The Lord of the Rings, the Hobbits make their way to the Cracks of Doom, which is the title of the chapter in which Darius and Sohrab truly connect after their fight, symbolic of the fight Frodo and his best friend Samwise Gamgee have. It’s also notable that both Darius and the The Lord of the Rings books are unusually specific in their explanations of language. Although Darius doesn't speak Farsi fluently, he often defines Persian words, their etymologies, and their particular nuances based on gender, situation, and relationship.
Star Trek
Allusions to Star Trek, Darius’s other beloved fantasy/sci-fi series, run through the entire novel. He calls people who push a mainstream agenda “Soulless Minions of Orthodoxy.” . Furthermore, Darius and his father are connected by their nightly viewing of a Star Trek episode, the one thing they seem to share in common at the beginning of the novel. Darius frequently references Star Trek to help interpret the world around him, especially in situations where he feels out of place. For example, as his weight is often remarked upon by his father and his family in Iran, Darius refers to his jiggling belly as a “gelatinous non-humanoid lifeform,” which helps him cope with and avoid his discomfort. Later, he makes a “tactical withdrawal” when Laleh infringes on the ritual of watching Star Trek with his father. Darius is deeply hurt by this moment, which he perceives as a betrayal. Finally, much like the characters in Star Trek, the characters in the novel are differentiated by age and culture, something they must overcome to truly communicate meaningfully with one another.
