Longing
In the beginning, Darling longed to be in America and wanted to have the great life that she thought America would give her. When she finally got there, she longed to be home in Zimbabwe with her friends and her mother.
- “If I’m lucky, like today, I get to be the U.S.A., which is a country-country… I feel like it’s my country now because my aunt Fostalina lives there” (51).
- In this scene, Darling and her friends are playing country-game and pick countries to represent their team. To them, America is a country-country because it is a more successful country than Zimbabwe.
- “If I were at home I know I would not be standing around because something called snow was preventing me from going outside to live life. Maybe me and Sbho and Bastard and Chipo and Godknows and Stina would be out in Budapest, stealing guavas. Or we would be playing Find bin Laden or country-game or Andy-over” (155).
- Snow is a new and unsettling part of life in Michigan to Darling, and it makes her want to return home to Zimbabwe.
Displacement
Many Zimbabweans were displaced after Operation Murambatsvina. Darling also feels displaced from Zimbabwe while in America, especially when Chipo questions her accent and actions at the end of the novel.
- “They appeared carrying sticks with which they marked the ground for where a shack would begin and end, and these, they carefully passed around, partitioning the new land with hands shaking like they were killing something. Squatting to mark the ground like that, they appeared broken-shards of glass people” (76).
- This is a representation of how the Zimbabweans were displaced after Operation Murambatsvina
- “You left it Darling, my dear, you left the house burning and you have the guts to tell me, in that stupid accent that you were not even born with, that doesn’t even suit you, that this is your country?” (288).
- Chipo gets upset with Darling for leaving Zimbabwe and does not like how much she has changed. In this moment, Darling feels even further removed from her home.
Language
The children in Zimbabwe often say things in English that they don’t really understand. Darling is the best English speaker, impressing her friends by answering the phone while they are in the white couple’s ransacked house in Budapest. When she is in America, she improves her English by watching lots of television and movies. Aunt Fostalina has a harder time with the language, as we can see when she attempts to describe a bra that she wants to a lady over the phone.
- “That’s what you do in America: you smile at people you don’t know and you smile at people you don’t even like and you smile for no reason” (176).
- Smiling is the universal language in America and Darling picks up on this pretty quickly as she communicates with other Americans.
- “And then the problem with those who speak only English is this: they don’t know how to listen; they are busy looking at your falling instead of paying attention to what you are saying” (196).
- As Aunt Fostalina talks to the lady over the phone, the reader can sense a level of impatience coming from the worker. There is a language barrier which makes it difficult for both parties to communicate.
Gender
Darling lives in a patriarchal society in which the men go off to work and rarely communicate or send money home to their wives and children. She struggles with her identity as a first-born female in a society demands that the first child should be a male.
- “The first baby is supposed to be a boy” (5).
- Darling realizes that her identity does not fit the norm in her society.
- “Generally the men always tried to appear strong; they walked tall, heads upright, arms steady at the sides, and feet firmly planted like trees.” (78).
- Gender roles are very apparent throughout the novel. Men were the ones who appeared strong and worked while the women stayed home.
Nina Davila 2018