One Day When Darling Analysis

One day when Darling is playing ‘country-game’ with her friends, she tells us how they all fight over countries like the U.S.A, Britain, and Canada but no one wanted to be South Africa or Botswana. She said, “If I’m lucky, like today, I get to be the U.S.A., which is a country-country; who doesn’t know what the U.S.A. It is the big baboon of the world?” (p.51). She hopes that some day her aunt who lives in America will come get her and she will be able to live there too. Darling brags to her friends saying she will have her own Lamborghini and live in a nice American house instead of the tin houses they live in. However once she arrived in America, she was disappointed. Right off the bat she tells us how she will miss her friends and the games they played saying, “Some things happen only in my country, and this here is not my country” (p.149). She was

Darling tells us how she shakes her head no when Aunt Fostalina asks her if she wants to go places. She realizes that Aunt Fostalina “leaves me alone and does not force or beat me up like perhaps Mother or Mother of Bones would if I was not doing what they wanted me to” (p.160). Darling says this ability to make choices for her herself has made her feel like she has become a real person. Her newfound autonomy in America is something she enjoys compared to back home. Darling’s perception of independence in America is an accurate depiction of the lives of most American children. It’s safe to say that most children in America have a voice when it comes to their own lives. Sure, parents set down the rules and enforce them when need be but many parents respect their children’s autonomy to a certain level. As we can see from Darling’s experience back home, the parent and child did not have an open relationship. Darling said she would be forced or beat up if she didn’t want to do something her mother wanted her to