Funny in Farsi Themes
- Family. The predominant theme of the book is the importance of family. ...
- Food. Food is an ongoing theme and the family's favorite pastime; the author says that if endurance eating was an Olympic sport her family would be gold medalists and they ...
- Prejudice Against Iranians. ...
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What happens in Funny in Farsi?
Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas's wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to ...
Is Funny in Farsi nonfiction?
Nonfiction Book Review: Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas.
What are the characters in Funny in Farsi?
Funny in Farsi CharactersFiroozeh Dumas. The protagonist and narrator of Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh is born in Iran, but spends most of her childhood living in California. ... Kazem. Kazem is Firoozeh's beloved father. ... Nazireh. ... François Dumas.
How many chapters are in Funny in Farsi?
27 chaptersFunny in Farsi contains 27 chapters, each addressing various themes for discussion.
Who wrote Funny in Farsi?
Firoozeh DumasFunny in Farsi / AuthorFiroozeh Dumas is an Iranian-American writer who writes in English. She is the author of the memoirs Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and Laughing without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen, and the semi-autobiographical novel It Ain't so Awful, Falafel. Wikipedia
How does firoozeh feel about her mother attending class with her?
Almost as soon as she's in America, Firoozeh begins to feel the Iranian and American sides of her identity tugging her in different directions: she loves her mother but she also wants to fit in with her peers, with the result that she begins to grow annoyed with her mother for embarrassing her.
Who is the main character in Funny in Farsi?
Firoozeh Dumas CharacterThe protagonist and narrator of Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh is born in Iran, but spends most of her childhood living in California.
Who is Nazireh in Funny in Farsi?
Nazireh is Firoozeh's mother, and although Firoozeh clearly loves her deeply, she's not as important a character in the book as Kazem, Firoozeh's father. Nazireh was raised in a fairly traditional Iranian family, meaning that she grew up believing that her purpose in life was to get married and have children.
Who is nematollah in Funny in Farsi?
Dumas starts the chapter by introducing her Uncle Nematollah, a man who in a culture of arranged marriages, selected his own wife three times. After his second divorce, he came to America to stay with Firoozeh's family.
What is the conflict in Funny in Farsi?
The character's major conflict was trying to fit in with the American culture and be "American" while still being herself. It is resolved by her finding people who love her for being herself and learns that you don't need to be "American" to fit into America.
What is Uncle nematollah most effective weight loss technique?
To lose weight, Nematollah buys diet pills and a scale. Frustrated when he doesn't get results, he buys a girdle and a shiny exercise outfit designed to help him sweat away weight.
How is the Persian language different from English when it comes to distinguishing family members?
Persians have a multitude of words to show the different, nuanced family relationships. The language has even fewer words than English. Actually, Farsi does not have any such words for family members. Persians use specific endings in words related to family members to reflect their pronouns.
Why was prejudice against Iran not an issue?
The subject of prejudice was not really an issue for the family when they first arrived as nobody really knew where Iran was at the time and incredible friendship was extended to the family because they were new and unfamiliar with American culture.
What is the theme of the book "The Family"?
The predominant theme of the book is the importance of family . Firoozeh 's family are exceptionally tightly-knit and not only appreciate each other but appreciate the love they all have for each other. Although her father never made the millions he dreamed of making he told Firoozeh that because of his family he was a very rich man. Everything revolves around family - celebrations, vacations, holidays, swimming lessons, education and every happening that can be made into a celebration. Throughout the book, the importance of family is emphasized and presented as something to treasure.
What is Funny and Farsi about?
At its heart, Funny and Farsi is a memoir about immigration and cultural assimilation in the United States—in other words, the way that immigrants adapt to the culture of their adopted country, embracing some aspects of the culture and ignoring or rejecting others. Throughout the book, Firoozeh shows how different Iranian immigrants in her family ...
What is Firoozeh's behavior?
Firoozeh’s behavior, one could argue, is typical of the second-generation immigrant: she’s more comfortable in American society than her parents, and but also less excited about American culture, since she’s grown up with it.
What is the culture of Firoozeh?
Other characters, such as Firoozeh herself, take a more balanced view of American culture, and of Iranian culture. Firoozeh spends the majority of her childhood in America, to the point where she speaks English with an American accent.
Is Firoozeh an outsider?
The result—which gives the book its poignancy, as well as its comedy—is that Firoozeh is an insider and an outsider, both in America and in Iran.
Did the characters in Funny in Farsi immigrate to the United States?
But just because the characters in Funny in Farsi immigrate from Iran to the United States doesn’t mean that they abandon their Iranian roots altogether . On the contrary, Firoozeh and her family adopt different aspects of Iranian and American culture into their lives, and the memoir ultimately suggests that this process ...
What is the historical context of Funny in Farsi?
Historical Context of Funny in Farsi. The main historical event discussed in Funny in Farsi is the Iranian Revolution of 1979. After many years of civil unrest in Iran, Shia clerics organized a revolution against the country’s American-backed leader, the Shah.
What is the setting of Funny in Farsi?
Genre: Memoir. Setting: Whittier and Newport, California, and Abadan and Ahwaz, Iran . Antagonist: While Funny in Farsi doesn’t have any single strong antagonistic character, it could be argued that bigotry and intolerance are the antagonists of the memoir.
What award did Funny in Farsi win?
A gracious loser. Funny in Farsi was nominated for many awards, including the James Thurber Prize for American Humor and a 2005 Audie Award (for the audio recording of her memoir).
Why did the students demand that the U.S. send the Shah back to Iran?
The students demanded that the U.S. send the Shah—who’d sought asylum in the United States—back to Iran to stand trial for his tyranny and corruption, threatening to kill American citizens unless the U.S. government complied.
Women and Feminism ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Women and Feminism appears in each chapter of Funny in Farsi. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
Women and Feminism Quotes in Funny in Farsi
Below you will find the important quotes in Funny in Farsi related to the theme of Women and Feminism.
What is the name of the narrator of Funny in Farsi?
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Funny in Farsi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Firoozeh, the narrator of the memoir, recalls moving from Abadan, Iran, to Whittier, California at the age of seven with her parents and her fourteen-year-old brother, Farshid.
What does Firoozeh feel embarrassed about?
On her first day of school, Firoozeh feels embarrassed as her mother walks her to her classroom —other kids stare at them. Firoozeh’s mother sits with Firoozeh in class, and Mrs. Sandberg writes Firoozeh’s name on the board, and then the word, “Iran.”.
Why is Firoozeh uncomfortable with her peers?
Firoozeh’s earliest reactions with her peers in school are uncomfortable, because they seem to think of her as an alien, “Other” person, rather than a true peer. Unlock. Unlock with LitCharts A+. Active Themes. On the walk home from school, Firoozeh and Nazireh get lost—the street signs are useless to them.
What does Firoozeh think of America?
Firoozeh, on the other hand, thinks of America in strictly material terms, as a place of abundance. In a way, they’re both right: Funny in Farsi portrays America as a haven of freedom, but also a land of products and excess. Firoozeh is a second grader at the time, and she starts attend the local elementary school in Whittier.
Why did Kazem like Nazireh?
Kazem was handsome and intelligent (he’d been a Fulbright scholar) and he liked Nazireh, partly because of her fair skin and straight hair. By seventeen, Nazireh had given birth to her first child. Even in a relatively progressive household, Nazireh ends up married with a child at the age of seventeen.
Who is Firoozeh's mother?
Firoozeh ’s mother, Nazireh, like most Iranian woman of the era, hasn’t had much education—she was raised to believe that her purpose in life was to marry and take care of her family. Her father was a fairly progressive man who encouraged her to have a career and become a midwife.
What was the parallel between Francoise and Firoozeh?
There was a parallel between Firoozeh and Francoise when it came to religion as both were secular and did not carry out the traditions of their religion but preferred to keep the traditions of their culture.
What does Nowruz smell like?
My Christmas kitchen smells of ginger, chocolate, and cinnamon. In my childhood kitchen, Nowruz smelled of cardamom, roasted pistachios and rose water. And in every Iranian living room, the sweet scent of hyacinths trumpeted the arrival of Nowruz and the beginning of spring.
Caveman Simile ("Swoosh, Swoosh")
"Every day, Kazem and Nematollah, like cavemen headed to the hunt, would drive to the local supermarket, returning with cans and boxes of mysterious American products."
Soldier Simile ("Swoosh, Swoosh")
"Like a soldier making love for the last time before he goes to war, Uncle Nematollah spent the next few days embracing his favorite American food one last time, sometimes twice."
X-Ray Glasses Simile ("The F Word")
"It was like having those x-ray glasses that let you see people naked, except that what I was seeing was far uglier than people's underwear."
Koala Simile ("Waterloo")
"I had never actually let go of my father preferring instead to cling to him like a koala on a eucalyptus branch during an earthquake."
