Firoozeh Dumas does a great job documenting her experiences as an Iranian in America both before and after the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis. Throughout each chapter we learning something new, not only about Iran, but also about family, culture, and Dumas herself. Throughout Funny in Farsi, we come to learn how important family is to Dumas. Early in the book, Dumas tell us that her father is very close with his siblings, their parents having died at an early age. As we continue to learn more about Dumas and her life experiences, we learn how much her father’s close relations with his siblings effected her. Dumas’ father passed down his close connectivity to family to her, and this shaped how she grew and found herself. For example, Dumas speaks about how her father’s sister always had compliments to give her and how even today just thinking about her causes a feeling of being “enveloped by love.” This positive motivation and encouragement most certainly effected how Dumas viewed herself, and in turn helped her become happy with who she is as a person. America is a place that encourages children to grow up and be independent. From what we …show more content…
We see an engaged Dumas telling her soon-to-be husband she “comes with a tribe,” then later as a married women letting her cousin stay with her and her husband as he took an internship. We also se a grown Dumas always disagreeing with her father over what side to vote for, this is in contrast to her mother who always votes as her father does. As I read the book I understood how Dumas grew up as a person who is independent, while also being dependence of her family and allowing her family to be dependent on her. Funny in Farsi truly shows how Dumas found who she was through family, love, and a perspective of two different
Taken Hostage by David Farber is book about the Iranian hostage crisis that occurred 1979-1981. Farber looks into the causes of the hostage crisis, both at home and abroad, relations between Iran and the United States, and what attempts were made in order to rescue the hostages. Farber wrote the book in order to give insight into an issue that is considered to be a huge blemish and embarrassment on America’s history. He looked at it from all perspectives and gave an objective overview of the conflict.
In the novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Satrapi’s childhood was highly impacted by American culture. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the affect American culture had on how Satrapi viewed the Iranian Revolution.
Firoozeh Dumas’ home country of Iran was, both prior and during the Iranian Revolution, vastly different than the capitalistic and also increasingly xenophobic United States, which had both its benefits and drawbacks. During each period of time that Dumas lived in the U.S. she faced hatred on the basis of her nationality and religion, most notably during the Shah’s visit to Washington, D.C. where her entire family and other Iranian families were threatened and many even violently beaten (113). Although she faced no physical trauma, Dumas was reminded of the negative attitudes towards Iranians that were even further inflamed during the hostage crisis in Tehran, leading to her hiding her heritage and her father struggling to find a job (117). On one occasion, her father was fired from a position after his employer realized that Kazem was Iranian, proving that for some ethnicity was more important than merit or skill level.
Americans should consider taking lessons from other cultures and focus on progressing in certain areas of their life, such as their parenting. Instead of devaluing family and important qualities, they should be placed with greater significance due to effects that may lead their offspring to repeat the same wrong values. I do believe independence is a quality that everyone should possess, but it should be taught to an extent that does not interfere with their other qualities. Living in America I have also adapted to their cultural values, which is being independent early on in life. Americans are perceived as placing significance on independence, which may cause children to value
Beginning with the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979, in the midst of Jimmy Carter’s second term, our relationship with Iran has been anything but healthy. Iran, at the time of the crisis, was under the radical influence of Ayatollah Khomeini. He had overrun and exiled the previous Shah who the United States had better relations with. After learning of the Shah’s fight with cancer, influential Americans convinced President Carter to permit the Shah to travel to the country to receive prominent medical care. This did not go over well in Iran and Khomeini then called for the students working at the U.S. embassy in Tehran to act on behalf of the country in response. On November 4, these “Iranian extremists” captured fifty-two American hostages.1 Carter attempted negotiations ranging from diplomacy to helicopter invasions, but nothing was accomplished. The relationship between the two countries...
The Iranian government is fighting a losing battle against a rapidly growing Western force. Although Iran is not physically waging war against the United States, the government is fighting to eradicate its increasing cultural influence in Iran. The young, Iranian population is currently speaking out against the Islamic Republic’s attempts to rid the country of Western culture, demanding more freedom and less censorship, similar to how Marjane Satrapi acts out against the regime in Persepolis.
Iran has different expectations of gender roles than America does. In the memoir Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas the main character experiences the different women’s gender roles from where she was born, Iran, to America, where she grew up. She moved to America, the land of the free because her father got a job transfer to California. She had to learn the new American culture so she could fit in with the rest of the American kids at her new school. The expectations for Iranian women were that you get married and have kids at a young age, then spend the rest of your life cooking and supporting the family. For Firoozeh this was not her expectation due to the fact that she moved to America when she was only seven years old. Throughout the story Firoozeh
Thesis Statement: I want to show Iran’s dramatic change of regimes and the way its people were treated starting with Pahlavi’s authoritarian rule. I also want to discuss the turbulant realtionship bewteen Iran and the United States, and how this all makes the Iran Hostage Crisis.
In Persepoli, Satrapi turns to humor as a way of coping with her feelings that are bringing her down. The use of humor in Persepo...
Born on October 18, 1997, she knew the mother she was born to would always be one of those three. As she progressed later in life, transitioning at a very young age from life in Brooklyn, New York to the metro Atlanta area she found her other half - Sanjee. Her cousin was more than just family. They were sisters, each other’s “ride or die”, day one, and every other millennial lingo you could think of that signified the lasting importance of a significant other. According to sociologist G.H. Mead, a significant other is someone who makes a lasting impact on your life, not just your non-platonic life partner. But the non-platonic life partner did come later for Fariha, it came in the form of an older, 5 feet and 11 inch, white male that went by the name Daniel Detlefsen. Through the course of her life she became exposed to different situations that proved that these were the three people she would have always come to cherish in her lifetime.
Watts, Tim. "Iran hostage crisis." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 28 July 2011.
Due to the serious tensions looming in the air, many people would think it is strictly forbidden to laugh a little or have fun in Iran. The constant political instability makes it seem like the citizens live like robots under extreme oppression. However, in Marjane Satrapi’s biography, Persepolis, she gives an inside look at her experiences growing up in Iran and adds comic relief throughout the novel. As the main character, Marjane, evolves from an innocent girl into a mature woman, Satrapi adds bits of comic relief to highlight her typical personality while living in the midst of an oppressive society.
Although everyone on this planet is a human being, some people don’t understand or accept that as well as others. In the books Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas and Running For My Life by Lopez Lomong, this was very well demonstrated in both good and bad ways. Funny in Farsi is a story about Firoozeh and her family, who immigrated from Iran to America. The story is in her point of view. When she was just seven, her entire family moved to California. Little did they know, their lack of knowledge for the English Language and American culture would cause many troubles for them throughout their lives in America. Running For My Life is about Lopez Lomong’s life and successes as he becomes a world renowned athlete from a poor, kidnapped Sudanese kid.
The short story comprises a comic plot. Mrs. Dutta stays back at home in India even after her husband dies and her son's immigration to America. She enjoys the newfound freedom of not having to attend to her traditional duties as a wife and mother. However, the fear of not being needed anymore pressures her to move to America with her son in order to reacquire her role. Contrary to her beliefs, Mrs. Dutta does not find happiness in her immigration to America. She endures cultural shock and denies her feelings in her new environment. Eventually, she writes a letter telling her friend that she is not sure if she is truly happy or not, what happiness is and that she plans to go home. Her admittance in her true feelings reveals her rejuvenation and her triumph over her fears and doubts. Although she does not realize it while writing the letter, Mrs. Dutta finds mere pride and happiness after all when she discovers she lacks the need to cry; a perfect comic ending in which the character finds a higher standing than the start of the story.
I delve into this research project hoping to acquire more information about humor and language. What makes some things funny and others not? How much of humor is based on culture or intellectual development? What I found was that no one really knows these answers yet. What there has been research on is humor and communication. To narrow my focus further, I chose to examine research papers relating specifically to intercultural communication through humor. I picked two studies to analyze which cover opposite ends of the intercultural humor spectrum. One suggests the best ways to use humor with a non-native speaker and the other discuses ways that intercultural humor can be seen as racist and disrespectful.