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Firoozeh Dumas's Memoir 'Funny In Farsi'

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“Funny In Farsi” is a memoir published by Firoozeh Dumas in 2003. The memoir follows Firoozeh and her life as an Iranian immigrant living in America during the time before and after the hostage crisis in Iran. The hostage crisis in Iran caused a huge stereotype to be put on Iranians all around the world, especially in America. This can be seen in Dumas’s memoir that recalls her life before, during, and after the hostage crisis in Iran. Through a lens of humor and wit, Dumas retells her experiences growing up as an Iranian immigrant in America. In “Funny in Farsi”, Dumas vividly portrays the cultural and identity challenges faced by Iranian immigrants in America. Some of these challenges ultimately led to Dumas changing herself to fit in. In …show more content…

Francois was also an immigrant, but he was from France, not Iran. Although both Francois and Firoozeh were immigrants, they had very different experiences in America while being immigrants. Firoozeh, on one hand, was treated as if her life was a big spectacle that everyone needed to watch. Everyone was always interested in what it was like to live in Iran, and in her culture, “As soon as I spoke enough English to communicate, I found myself being interviewed nonstop by children and adults alike. My life became one long-running Oprah show-” (Dumas 31). Once the Iranian hostage crisis got to peoples ears, their interest was no longer there. The only way people felt about the Iranians was that they were all terrorists. This in turn spread a massive stereotype all over Iranian people. On the other hand, Francois was treated in the opposite way. Americans viewed Francois as an intriguing intellectual, “people find him intriguing”. It is assumed that he’s a sensitive, well-read intellectual, someone who, when not reciting Baudelaire, spends his days creating Impressionist paintings.” (Dumas 40). For most Americans, they believe that people from France are delicate and classy. This allowed Francois to have an easier time in his life in America. This realization of the difference between Francois and Firoozeh’s experiences opened her eyes to how truly unfair she and her family were treated. This in turn shows that how Americans view the country that the immigrant originated from has a massive impact on how they view that person. Americans at the time viewed Iran as a dangerous and corrupt country, so that is how they viewed people from Iran. At the same time, Americans viewed France as a classy country, so that is how they viewed people from

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Dumas’s conclusion she told a final and most resent funny story about getting pulled over for speeding with an American friend she had made. This friend was held hostage in Iran years prior to and ironically enough, her and Firoozeh became very close friends because of this unfortunate encounter. I believe that she purposely left off with a story such as this, to leave the idea that Iranians and Americans can still be friends even after all of the struggles between the two countries. This conclusion was very effective I believe, because it left the audience with a warm feeling inside about Iranians, this is most likely what she was hoping for. By using personal experiences of historical events such as the hostage situation and 9/11 she created credibility and gained trust from the audience.

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