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Summary
Chapters 9-12
Chapter 9: Temporal Displacement
On the way to Iran, Laleh is excited while Darius is nervous for what could go wrong. During a layover in New York, Shirin tells Darius not to take people’s reactions to his depression personally because people in Iran do not view mental health the same way Americans do. She laments not visiting Iran before now.
In Dubai, Darius feels dirty and confused by the time change. He hasn’t taken his medication in a while and has a headache. Laleh is also in a bad mood until she smells Subway, her favorite restaurant. Stephen expresses displeasure that Darius orders a chicken tikka masala sub because it doesn’t have vegetables. When Darius returns from the bathroom, he overhears Shirin telling Stephen to stop shaming Darius for his weight, and hears Stephen respond that Darius wouldn't get picked on so much if he acted normal. When Shirin takes Laleh to the bathroom, Stephen apologizes and tells Darius they should try to get along. Darius agrees but is still hurt and doesn't think they will be able to. The family takes one more flight to Tehran, and, as the plane is about to land, Darius sees the women passengers cover their heads with scarves.
Chapter 10: There Are Four Lights
After moving through customs, a bearded guard stops Darius and tells him to come with him. Shirin tries talking to the guard in Farsi, but he leads Darius away to a small room where Darius is questioned alone. Officials search Darius’s bag and ask what his medication is for. Darius tells them he’s depressed, and they ask what about. He admits he’s depressed about nothing. The guard tells him it’s probably dietary. When asked about the symbol on his bag, Darius explains that his dad is an architect. The guard delightedly tells Darius which buildings he should see in Iran before releasing him. Shirin clings to Darius after this incident, which frustrates Darius because he wants to tell his dad about it.
Chapter 11: The Dancing Fan
Tehran is colder than Darius expected, and it doesn’t smell like rice as he assumed it would—rather, Tehran smells like Portland. Outside of the airport, Darius’s grandmother, Mamou, greets the family enthusiastically and the family drives to Yazd, Shirin’s hometown. Darius is mesmerized by the lines on his grandmother’s hands. He is embarrassed to tell the truth about his popularity when she asks him about school, and gives her only vague, boring answers. Mamou tells him he is handsome, but Darius doesn’t believe her. Though many Persians don’t openly express affection, Mamou cries from happiness and tells him she loves him. He tells her he loves her, too. Darius dozes, dreaming of the times his mom chanted in Farsi at bedtime when he was a child. Darius remembers that his father used to tell him stories every night as he fell asleep, but six months before Laleh was born, he stopped this nightly ritual without explanation. Darius assumes he did something wrong. His mom promises he didn’t, but Darius doesn’t believe her.
In Yazd, Darius compares the elaborate doors of the buildings to those of hobbit homes. Once at Mamou’s house, Stephen and Darius try to help Jamsheed, Shirin’s brother, bring in the luggage, but he refuses their help. They realize this is their first taroof, a Persian word that means “putting others before yourself,” which Persians customarily invoke in order to refuse help. Babou is sleeping because he doesn’t feel well. Darius wants to look at the many pictures he notices on the wall, but instead he follows Mamou to the small room he’ll be staying in. Darius notices a picture of Mamou and her parents from when Mamou was Darius’s age. After showering, Darius turns on a fan, but it keeps dancing around the room, its animation scaring him. He tries to still the fan with his suitcase, but its unpredictable movement still makes him anxious.
Chapter 12: The History of American-Iranian Relations
Darius wakes up to tapping on the window but sees nothing. He goes outside, where he observes Babou deftly climbing a ladder. Once on the roof, Babou yells out to a nearby shed where a boy Darius’s age unloops a hose. The boy is Sohrab Rezaei, Babou’s neighbor. Babou notices Darius and tells him to help Sohrab. Darius and Sohrab speak in English because Darius doesn’t know Farsi. Together, they unwind the hose. Once it’s free, Sohrab points it at Darius, who screams before noticing the water isn’t on, and they laugh together. Babou asks Darius to turn on the hose. Sohrab notices Darius’s concern for Babou and assures him that Babou does this all the time, but they agree that Babou probably shouldn’t be on the roof.
Analysis
Many of the interactions during the family trip to Iran are previews of what’s to come later on the journey. Shirin’s discussion with Darius in the airport about not getting upset about digs at his mental health foreshadows the many interactions in which cultural differences will embolden people to downplay or even deny Darius’s depression in Iran. The differing cultural outlooks on mental health is an overarching theme of the novel, marked by several instances that may come off rude to Western readers, such as the guard who can’t believe Darius takes medication for depression and recommends a diet change instead. While Darius can’t understand how much his mother will be affected by this trip, Shirin’s admission that she should have taken her family back to Iran before now foreshadows another family issue explored throughout the novel. A shift is happening in Shirin and her parents’ relationship just as significant as the one that’s occurring between Darius and his parents.
Darius’s growing anxiety during travel is exacerbated by the fact that the time changes and anxiety of traveling have knocked his medication schedule off track. This isn’t stated outright but is subtly noted in the small comments Darius makes, like not remembering when he last took his meds, having a splitting headache, feeling out of sorts, and deciding to put off taking his meds until the next day so he can take them with breakfast. It’s reasonable to presume that an added stressor on Darius, at least during the first half of his trip, is the disruption of his medication schedule, since he usually takes the medication several times a day. The contrast between how Darius and Laleh think about the trip emphasizes Darius’s negativity. Laleh is excited and full of anticipation for all they will see, while Darius worries about every possible danger. Darius assumes the worried look on his mom’s face has to do with him, and here again it is made clear that Darius often misconstrues social cues as disapproval of him. In reality, Shirin is distracted by her dad’s health and her fear about facing her decision to wait 17 years to come home.
Landing in Tehran is much like entering another world for Darius. All of the women, including Shirin and Laleh, put on their headscarves. As happens several times in the novel, Darius feels two ways at once. Darius is both surprised and unsurprised that Iran doesn't look like the movie Aladdin. While Darius hates that the white kids at school stereotype him, he can’t stop himself from stereotyping Iran and the people in it. When he’s surprised there are no camels, he remembers a bully calling him a camel jockey. Visiting this “other world” helps Darius realize the irony of his own misconceptions about a place he already knows so much about. The different customs Darius had only read about, like taroofing and squatting to use the bathroom, become realities.
The air smells like just like it does in Portland, but at the same time, the doors on the buildings look like something from The Lord of The Rings. Iran, for Darius, feels like a blend of fantasy and reality.
Darius and Mamou quickly and easily become fast friends because they are so much alike. Unlike other Persians, Mamou is highly emotional and outwardly loving, which Darius finds comforting. She asks the same generic questions that Darius hates about popularity, friends, and girlfriends, but his answers have no bearing on her praising him for being handsome and sweet. Just as Darius shows his love through tea, Mamou shows love through food. Whereas Stephen constantly pulls food away from Darius, Mamou constantly asks him if he’s hungry. In Darius’s room at his grandparents’ house, a picture on the wall shows Mamou at Darius’s age, driving home the theme of generational cycles. Indeed, as their stay in Iran begins, everyone in the family is going through a different phase of growth together.
