She also compares his hair and garb to that of women, as she does when she sees a picture of her father in a graduation robe, trying to square what she knows about gender presentation with what she is shown of the Western world.įinally, the book shows many young girls taking on the mannerisms of women, as if practicing their gender role for later in life. She tries to color his eyes brown in a picture to look more like her and everyone she knows. Second, Darling toys with different ideas about Jesus's appearance. First, Darling sees a woman molested by a priest in front of his congregation on Fambeki mountain under the guise of exorcising her. This problem recurs for Darling when her father finally returns home and, in his delirious state, calls her his son, which she does not correct.Īlong with these traditional Zimbabwean values, Western religion comes into play in at least two ways. Darling struggles with her identity as a first-born female when her society dictates that the first child should be a male, telling Chipo that her baby will be a male because "the first baby is supposed to be a boy" (5) and then responding "I said supposed, didn't I?" (5) when asked about her own gender. Her family follows a fairly patriarchal structure in which the man goes far off to work and rarely communicates or sends money home to his wife and child.
Darling is a product of early-2000s globalism, but also of traditional and Christian values due to her upbringing by her caregivers, Mother of Bones, and her parents.
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