37 pages • 1-hour read
Funny In Farsi
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Key Figures
Firoozeh Dumas
Firoozeh is the first-person narrator, and much of what she portrays in the memoir involves reflections on her experiences as an Iranian immigrant to the US. She paints herself as a child and an adolescent as highly self-conscious, a trait that her status as an immigrant exacerbates. The first scene of the book, in which she is asked to locate Iran on a map in front of her elementary school class, demonstrates her ambivalence at being the center of attention. She recalls her experience at a summer camp later, where she does everything in her power to isolate herself to avoid attention.
Firoozeh’s sense of humor and her willingness to poke fun at both others and herself give the book its spirit and tone. When she cites the many ways others mistake or misunderstand her name, for example, she is not condemnatory. Instead, she retells the incidents with a lightheartedness, suggesting that even though she has reason to be frustrated, she does not assume nefarious intent from others. She seeks the good in people, like her father does, and holds fast to this principle throughout the book. Her story provides an intimate view of an Iranian immigrant’s experience of learning to navigate the US, particularly during the tensions of the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis.
Kazem Jazayeri
While Funny in Farsi is a memoir of Firoozeh’s life, it could be argued that she is not the main character. In fact, in the afterword, she makes this assertion herself. Instead, her father, Kazem, is the book’s central figure. Kazem is portrayed as an optimist and an idealist, and his arrival into the US with his family is an exercise in turning idealism into reality. Dumas portrays Kazem as a kind and gentle—yet quirky—man whose apparent vision of his place in the world does not exactly correspond to the reality of his situation. For example, he tells his family that he speaks English perfectly fine, yet when his wife and children see how others respond when he speaks English, it is clear that there is a disconnect between his own perception of his language skills and his actual proficiency level.
Kazem also tends to fit the circumstances of life into his preconceived ideas of it. Dumas dedicates a full chapter to the ways Kazem rationalizes his penchant for eating ham, even though it goes against Islamic practice. He allows himself the excuse that the Prophet Muhammad only banned ham because it could make people sick in his time. Kazem also rationalizes his various mistakes throughout the book in similar ways, which suggests that he does not like to admit that he is wrong, yet his stubbornness is not portrayed as a glaring fault. Instead, it is treated as a product of his optimistic worldview. Kazem is also generous and family-oriented. He has very close relationships with all his siblings, and family is at the center of his identity. He also has a great sense of humor, as evidenced by the fact that his daughter at times pokes fun at him in the book, yet he loves it so much that he tells her he wants Steve Martin to play him in the movie adaptation (198).
Nazireh Jazayeri
As the memoir begins, Nazireh plays a prominent role, which decreases gradually as the narrative unfolds. Dumas portrays her mother as having sacrificed what little independence she may have had in Iran by emigrating to America. Upon first arriving in America, Nazireh and Firoozeh form a kind of inverted relationship in which the mother clings to and becomes increasingly dependent upon the daughter the more Dumas learns to speak English.
Dumas portrays Nazireh as subservient to her husband, and she does not does not draw the same kind of reverence from Dumas as does her father. She does not possess the same degree of autonomy as Kazem’s sister, Sedigeh, who Kazem claims is the most intelligent of his siblings but was robbed of the opportunity to pursue her education by the unfair system in Iran that discouraged women from those efforts. Nazireh does not garner the same kind of esteem from Kazem or Dumas in the book. Dumas is not indifferent toward her mother; at times, a very subtle kind of sympathy is evoked on her behalf. However, because of the proportion of content that focuses on Kazem, Nazireh plays a secondary role in the book and essentially exists in his shadow.
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