Humor Helps

Humor, used in the correct way, can serve as a light way to convey heavier emotions and causes. In The "F Word", Firoozeh Dumas illustrates her experiences of having an exotic name in America with moments of dry humor. Dumas easily wove in one-liners and subtle remarks throughout her piece, and this was able to help her develop her arguement because in the situations she had to face, she had to find the humor within it all. It also shows that if humor is involved in a piece, the reader will show increased interest in the subject at hand.

The first two lines of the piece set the tone for how this story will be portrayed. "My cousin's name, Farbod, means "Greatness." When he moved to America, all the kids called him "Farthead." This simple statement right off the bat has the reader hooked immediately. The reason this plays to Dumas' advantage is because this is such a relatable situation. All the time, whether it be children or adults, exotic names are butchered and beaten in the United States, which is ironic considering the amount of immigrants that make up the population. She reiterated this type of situation using her own name as an example, by saying, "My name, Firoozeh, chosen by my mother, means "Turquoise" in Farsi. In America, it means "Unpronounceable" or "I'm Not Going to Talk to You Because I Cannot Possibly Learn Your Name and I Just Don't Want to Have to Ask You Again and Again Because You'll Think I'm Dumb or You Might Get Upset or Something." This candid portrayal of what Americans actually mean when they do not want to pronounce a foreign name correctly shows that Dumas can make light of such an ordinarily upsetting situation. By displaying the true feelings of unwilling Americans, she connects with those that deal with the struggle of having an exotic name and also humorously calls out the Americans that do this every time they see a name other than 'John Smith'.

This helped Dumas form her point in the next paragraph, which was, "All of us immigrants knew that moving to America would be fraught with challenges, but none of us thought that our names would be such an obstacle." One's name is such an intergral part of their being and their identity, even though all a name really is is just a string of syllables that pertains to one person only. To be personally victimized by mispronunciations of her given name and immediately judged by her peers, Dumas had no other choice than to adopt an American name. By switching back and forth between these names, Dumas felt that she had two separate identities before finally settling on her true name. Dumas' use of humorous language helped her to show that even though she knew that her name would be beaten and buthchered by those that only answer to 'Smith', she was able to keep things in a lighter tone and that helped her arguement overall by compelling readers to listen to an honest account of an everyday occurance.