Funny In Farsi Analysis

Funny in Farsi is a non-fiction story about a young girl named Firoozeh Dumas who moved from Iran to America when she was seven. Her parents, Kazem and Nazireh, and her brothers and she all moved to Whittier, California in search of a better life. Her dad, an engineeer with the National Iranian Oil Company is assigned to work for an American firm. Her dad thinks that the United States is the promised land. Dumas explains her life as an Iranian immigrant in the United States. Her stories of adapting to American life clarifies on the life of immigrants and demonstrates the struggle in overcoming adversity. She highlights her life struggles as struggling to understand English, being an outsider, and being discriminated during the Iranian revolution. On the day Dumas and her
Dumas then decides to change her name so she would not stand out anymore. A quote from Dumas States, “When I was twelve, I decided to simplify my life by adding an American middle name” (Page 63). She strengthens more of her decision by explaining how she is tired of people not being able to pronounce her name right, or also making fun of her name. At last she chose the name Julie for its simplicity. Dumas states, “Thus I started sixth grade with my new, easy name and life became indefinitely simpler” (Page 65). Her decision to take an American name suggests that her feelings toward her adopted country was that all she ever wanted was to fit in and not to be an outsider. When she went to college she went back to using her real name and during that time period it was the start of an Iranian revolution. After graduating she tried looking for a job but was always getting rejected because of her name. Instead she went back to using Julie as her name and it was a coincidence that she started getting job offers. Mostly during that time Americans did not want to hire