In Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas explains that her father, Kazem, had studied and worked in America and "often spoke about America with eloquence and the wonder normally reserved for a first love. For him, America was a place where anyone, no matter how humble, could become an important person” (3). Hearing his father's wonderful stories about clean toilets and always friendly citizens, Dumas had imagined a warm and welcoming country. Essentially, this is what she initially received when she immigrated to America. However, after the Iranian Revolution, many opinions changed toward people of Iranian descent, but in ways that may have revealed a form of American myopia. As Dumas points out in one of the most important ironies of his book, Americans have gone from never having heard of Iran to assuming they know everything about its people and culture. . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Funny in Farsi explores the various prejudices associated with being an immigrant in America and the tendencies of many Americans to judge other countries and cultures. Dumas says: “I was fortunate to have come to America years before the political upheavals in Iran. The Americans we met were kind and curious, not afraid to ask questions, and willing to listen” (31). When Dumas and his family first arrived in America, they encountered no particular enemies. In fact, the people they met had never heard of Iran or neighboring countries, so they had no reason to hate an Iranian. The Americans may have seemed slightly ignorant when it came to geography and anthropology, but at least they weren't making assumptions about Iranian ethics. Dumas remembers: “Our relatives who immigrated to this country after the Iranian revolution did not encounter the same America. » During the hostage situation at the American Embassy in Tehran, Dumas met many Americans who knew and disliked Iran and Iranians. She noted that most Americans seemed to think that any Iranian could take hostages at any time. Americans began to be very afraid of her and her family because of their appearance or the way they spoke (39), so Dumas's relatives had to struggle with their appearance and name due to the hostage situation. They were oppressed by a state of fear and ignorance in a situation they could not control and did not support. Dumas' first name, Firoozeh, which means "turquoise" in Persian, has become a daily struggle for her and others. She jokes, “In America, it means ‘Unpronounceable’” (63). Her classmates teased her because of her name and gave her unwanted nicknames. Although most people experience some form of ridicule from classmates during their youth, Dumas insinuates that her name was much easier to mock than others' and that he made her the target of unwarranted attention. Given that she was new to her schools and already the center of attention of many other children, the scrutiny of her unusual name only added to the pressure she felt to blend in with the general population. Dumas believed that there was no easier way to escape this fate of mispronunciations and ill-intentioned jokes than to change one's name completely. Dumas decides to adopt a.