“The F Word” Analysis Immigrant author from Iran, after growing up and raising children in America and struggling with how Americans react to her foreign name, Firoozeh Dumas, in her memoir, “The F Word,” narrates how her childhood and professional experiences were effected. Firoozeh Dumas uses a friendly tone, pathos, and literary devices to portray the experiences of her childhood and maturation as an immigrant in her narrative essay. She includes an account of her school and childhood experiences when others outcast her due to her foreign name, mentions of her life while using a more American name, and how she is treated in her adulthood after going back to being called Firoozeh. She uses unique styles of writing to help the reader understand and relate to her life, while informing them of the hardships that many newcomers to America encounter.
In “Se Habla Espanol,” Tanya Barrientos elaborates on her personal experience growing up in the United States. In the first couple decades of her life, Barrientos distanced herself from her cultural roots fearing that she would be judge and belittle. It was essential for Barrientos to fit in with the American society. Barrientos formats the short story where she is speaking from firsthand experience.
In the nineteenth century, the United States was regarded for being the land of opportunity and shelter for immigrants. For many immigrants, the promise of not having to withstand the pressures of political, economic, and religious persecution in Europe helped boost thousands of people to come to the coast of Staten Island. Despite what the Americans conceived their roles towards immigrants to be, the perception of the immigrants to the real story of how they survived in America does not support the claim that America is a land of opportunity and shelter. The Russian Jews that emigrated had a different approach to the fulfillment of liberties promised by promotional books, such as Where to Emigrate and Why.
I remember you were so proud you knew a foreign language. I remember I told you English was your foreign language and you left again. "(BFD, 21) Alexie is concerned with the fragmented, often alienated “bicultural” lives of such characters who sacrifice their native identity and culture in the hope of being assimilated in the dominant American one. Those who attempt to become assimilated, according to Elbert Memmi, might behave in this way: They endeavor to resemble the colonizer in the frank hope that he may cease to consider them different from him.
Iranian writer, Firoozeh Dumas, in her narrative essay, “The F Word,”illustrates the challenges of having a different name in America. Dumas’ purpose is to represent the importance of accepting one’s identity and other’s. Having a different name brought her a great challenge to fit in with her peers. Through the story, she learned how to accept her own name and how should others accept people’s differences. She portrays this idea in a humorous way.
The lines following line 44 are given in the tone of Salman Rudshie. He gives readers the tone that Americans are poor at adapting to the world, and they must learn from modern migrants who “make a new imaginative relationship with the world, because of the loss of familiar habits”. Rudshie’s critical tone goes on in lines 59-62, using the analogy of forcing industrial and commercial habits on foreign ground is synonymous if ‘the mind were a cookie-cutter and the land wer
In John Downe’s letter to his wife about emigrating to the United States, he uses personal anecdotes to appeal to ethos and logos, subjective diction to appeal to pathos, and comparative devices to contrast the United States and England. In his letter, Downe refers to his personal experiences in America to add credibility to his attempts to convince his wife. “... they had on the table pudding, pyes, and fruit of all kind that was in season, and preserves, pickles, vegetables, meat, and everything that a person could wish…,” using a personal anecdote, he tries to sway his wife into believing that every family in America is this fortunate. It’s established that he was poor prior to moving to America, so he speaks of trips to the American markets like, “I can have 100 lbs.
The United States, during the 19th century, was a growing nation with much promise to prosper and urbanize. An integral aspect that contributed to the nation's expansion were immigrants, Individuals who were seeking more opportunities came from countries such as China, Germany, Ireland, etc. to work in the United States and earn a better living. In 1830, John Downe, an immigrant from England, is an example of a individual emigrating their home country to improve their life. John, in a letter to his wife trying to persuade his family to emigrate as well uses a mixture of tone, atmosphere, and pathos to envoke an overall hopeful but yet melancholy mood.
Immigrants that are new to the American society are often so used to their own culture that it is difficult for them to accept and adapt to the American culture. The language that is spoken, as well as the various holidays and traditions that Americans entertain themselves with, aren’t what most immigrants would deem a neccessity for their life to move on. Nonetheless, they still have to be accustomed to these things if they have any chance of suceeding in a land where knowledge is key. The story “My Favorite Chaperone” written by Jean Davies Okimoto, follows the life of a young girl who along with her brother Nurzhan, her mother known as mama, and her father whom she refers to as Papi have immigrated to the United States from Kazakhstan, through a dating magazine. Throughout the story each family member faces problems that causes them to realize just how different their life is know that they’ve immigrated..
Immigrants come for the future generations, “For Ambrosch my mama come here. ”(59). It won’t be Mr. and Mrs. Shimerda that become wealthy, CONJUNCTIONit takes time to become established. The generations to come, and to a certain degree Ambrosch and Antonia will be the ones to live a better life. In fact, life in America for the Shimerdas is more difficult than in Bohemia.
This realization was met with disapproval and many tears, as at the time it meant extra schooling. She experienced confusion between what she had perceived as her identity, a Yankee, she claimed “It was like being born with two heads. It sounded freakish and a lot of trouble (p.19).” She certainly wasn’t wrong about it being a lot of trouble.
Not only does Yolanda have to become accustom to a new environment, she also fears the threat of bombs and must be prepared for a catastrophe. In the short story “Snow”, the author symbolizes the word snow by showing that the protagonist, Yolanda, feels a sense of fear and joy through first time experiences as she adjusts to a new life in New York during a time of crisis. The main character of the story, Yolanda, is new to not only New York, but America too. If being in a new surrounding and learning a new language is not scary enough, she also learns that Russian missiles are supposedly going to be trained on New York City, her new home “soon I picked up enough English to understand holocaust was in the air.
Janie’s first place of residence was West Florida with her grandmother. Her grandmother moved here so they can have a better life. “Ah got with some good white people and come down here in West Florida to work and make de sun shine both sides of de street for Leafy,”(19). This led to Janie
Now she will return to India with an American passport. She will return to a world where she will not single handedly throw parties for dozens of people...” (p276) When living in America, she doesn’t feel her belonging. When she’s back in India, she doesn’t feel her belonging neither. She completely lost her sense of belonging for she is culturally displaced, and this is what Immigrants face.
At first Reed easily notices the small cultural differences such as the lack of cutlery at the dinner table (48) and also the customs of marriage, which usually signifies wealth and is “no more binding then the most casual attachment” (53). But later he begins to see that the American idea of Mexicans has been very off base. This first started when his misconceptions were debunked by the hospitable behavior of the people he encountered. Reed gives context of the American perception of Mexicans for example when he says, “I want to mention one fact [about Mexicans]” and making it a matter of importance. He continues, “Americans had insisted that the Mexican was fundamentally dishonest” (65) and then contrasts this assumption by describing the wonderful hospitality that nearly all Mexicans showed him during his travels.