Summary Of The F Word By Firoozeh Dumas

Immigrants, since the mass immigration in the 19th century, have been changing their names to sound more American. Firoozeh Dumas’s excerpt “The ‘F Word’” was taken from Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, published in 2003. Dumas tells the audience what growing up with an Iranian name feels like. She came to America knowing that challenges would arise, but what she did not know was how someone could change your name into a complete insult. Hoping she would make it through these obstacles she came blindly into the United States. Dumas’s style of writing, using irony, metaphors, and excellent word choice, makes it easy to understand her arguments. At the age of twelve, Dumas decided to add an American middle name to

Starting out she uses humour when talking about how people mispronounce her family’s names. In the second paragraph it states, “The name of my friend Neggar means “Beloved,” although it can be more accurately translated as ‘She Whose Name Almost Incites Riots.’” Dumas uses this humour to make the reader want to continue to read and to not offend anyone right away. She starts to talk about what her name means and in the fifth paragraph she says, “In America, it means ‘Unpronounceable’ or ‘I’m Not Going to Talk to You Because I Cannot Possibly Learn Your Name and I Just Don’t Want to Have to Ask You Again and Again Because You’ll Think I’m Dumb or You Might Get Upset or Something.’” Dumas is also using humour here to allow the reader to laugh along with her name, but also let the audience know how she is feeling when someone doesn’t want to try and pronounce her name. Knowing this she wants to change her name and she asks for suggestions from her dad and he says, “Fifi.” Dumas sarcastically says in paragraph eleven, “Had I had a special affinity for French poodles or been considering a career in prostitution, I would’ve gone with that one.” Once again, she is using humour and sarcasm to portray the struggle of her life and fitting in all because of her Iranian name. The sarcasm allows for the audience to feel a better mood at this point in the

In paragraph ten she said, “My first and last name together generally served the same purpose as a high brick wall.” This statement creates very vivid imagery, the brick wall being compared to her name. The brick wall shows how hard it is for people to see past her name and be able to know the real her. Her name creates barriers and one was being able to find job interviews, because of this she changed her name to “Julie”. In paragraph fifteen she stated, “I felt like those characters in soap operas who have an evil twin. The two, of course, can never be in the same room, since they’re played by the same person, a struggling actress who wears a wig to play one of the twins and dreams of moving on to bigger and better roles.” She used great word choice and elaborately explained how she felt fake by having “two” identities. The audience knows that she runs into trouble when her two identities would end up in the same room, when her American friends run into her non-American friends, because of her word choice. Dumas’s word choice in the last paragraph shows sarcasm. She said, “She was transferred to New York where, from what I’ve heard, she might meet an immigrant or two and, who knows, she just might have to make some room in her spice cabinet.” Using sarcasm created a tone that allowed the reader to know that Dumas was irritated with a lady who did not respect immigrants. Also, the