Funny in Farsi Essay

In the chapter “America, Land of the free” from the book Funny in Farsi Firoozeh Dumas argues that people are more willing to do things under uncommon circumstances when being offered something in exchange because desire makes them ignore the their actions and focus on the benefits. Everybody has experienced the feeling of desire in their lifetime, and are conscious of how this feeling is involved in their decision making process.

The focus of this paper is an analysis of the book Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas using concepts from the Lives Across Cultures textbook. Ten concepts are identified and defined from Chapter readings. Following definitions, examples from the novel of these concepts are shown.

I believe family is such an important part in this family’s life because they are all that each other has got. They hold close to their family because they have been through so much and they see death all around them, so they see the importance of their family. They also are taught from a very young age to respect their elders in the family because they have seen much more and know much more about all aspects of life. They are viewed as wise and knowledgeable and the young family members cherish the opportunity to learn from them. In the movie Gran Torino one

People often think of family as positive, loving, and with no flaws. However, there is almost a stereotype that all families love each other and there aren’t problems or challenges in a family. Sometimes families put people through challenges and some families aren’t “perfect”. In the book Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, Jolly has two kids and goes through challenges with her family. Most careful readers can see how Jolly has these challenges with her kids and how she is far off from the “perfect” family. She goes through many of these challenges in life and finds a way to overcome them. Jollys family shapes her identity because the challenges she faces ends up making her stronger. Jeremy and Jilly challenging her, LaVaughn helping her out, and her past family all shape her identity.

While there are many strong relationships, there are also familial relationships as evidenced through Shelby and her mother, M’Lynn. Their relationship does a great job demonstrating the characteristic of responsibility in family relationships. M’Lynn constantly felt the need to protect Shelby. She also felt responsible for Shelby’s health and well being. Our text explains this same idea claiming, “Family members see themselves as having certain obligations and responsibilities to one another,” (DeVito, 2015). We found that Shelby and M’Lynn’s relationship is based off of this element of obligation and demonstrates how a family characteristic can dictate how members act. For example, because of Shelby’s diabetes, M’Lynn constantly watches after her. When Shelby’s blood sugar drops in the salon, her mother runs right over to her and feeds her juice demonstrating her duty to take care of her daughter. If she was not a family member of Shelby she may have just uncomfortably observed the whole incident like some of the other women. However, because they do have a familial bond, M’lynn knows more about Shelby and her condition than anyone else; she understands that she is the only one out of the women that knows how to take care of her daughter during a diabetic

Toni Morrison’s Sula revolves around the relationship of her two main characters, Sula and Nel. The childhood friends grow apart with age. Although it is indicated that their friendship is the most important relationship they participate in, they eventually betray each other and lead dishonest lives. Throughout the novel, we see their constantly deteriorating relationship as a result of absence of a family life. Sula is a novel about the influence family may have on the make up of someone’s personality. In particular, the novel examines the effect parents can have on their children and the conscious effort the main characters make to be unlike their mothers.

In today’s society, family is often attempted to be organized within a social structure. Within this structure family typically is consisted of mom, dad, daughter, and son. However, many families do not fit into this configuration. These families may include same sex couples, separated or divorced families, extended families, or even blended families. Even though these families may be happy and healthy, to many they are not considered real families. Going along with the topic of imperfect families, both Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Rodriguez try to break down the traditional family structure through their writing. While Kingsolver’s “Stone Soup” and Rodriguez’s “Family Values” explore the ideas of different family structures and traditional American values, “Stone Soup” breaks down what an actual family is like while “Family Values” expresses the value of family in different cultures.

The chapter discusses how human development is affected by the nature in which a person is born into. It discusses how worldviews regarding child 's development vary among different regions throughout the continents. The chapter goes into the similarities of cultures as well as the differences of how humans develop across the board in all areas of thought in different regions of the world. The author tries to link human development with cultural aspects of how problem solving occurs as far as cultural influences are concerned. The nature of human development may occur in a pattern with all types of cultures and background.

What is a family? As a young child, Kingsolver played in her room with a toy set called “The Family of Dolls”, which served as the perfect example of what a “real” family is: “four in number, who came with the factory-assigned names of Dad, Mom, Sis, and Junior.” She always ended up comparing her family to this perfect idea of a family that she played with. As a grown-up Kingsolver went through divorce herself, creating a “broken” home for her child. Kingsolver experienced the abnormalness and society’s ideals pushed through her head. But although her family was

Family is expressed in diverse ways. Mama strongly believes in the importance of family throughout the book. She continues to try to keep them together by fulfilling their dreams before hers. Her dream was moving her family out of the ghetto and into a house with a yard where children can play, and she can tend a garden. Her dream has been deferred since she and her husband moved into the apartment that the Youngers still inhabit. Every day, her dream provides her with an incentive to make money. But no matter how much she and her husband strived, they could not scrape together enough money to make their dream a reality. As they go through trying times the eventify they come together as a family because by the end they realized being together was most important. They are still strong individuals but together they prove they are a strong family. Throughout the book the Younger family is constantly arguing about what Mama should do with the ten thousand dollars she inherited from her husband. “I-I just seen my family fall apart today…. Just falling into pieces in front of my eyes we couldn’t have gone on like we were today (Hansberry91)” Mama is trying to tell her family that these arguments about the money are tearing her family apart. She wanted them to know that she did the right thing by buying the house, thinking it would make her family happy again. Mama could have spent the money on herself, but she chose her family first and their needs that is

In the novel, Funny in Farsi, religion plays an important role as Firoozeh Dumas migrated to the United States of America. During her time in America, Firoozeh is forced to look upon things differently than how most American's do, however as her life continues she establishes the perfect balance between her homelands religion and the religion in America. In addition, religion also serves as a tool for her to demonstrate the progress she has made to become culturally in tune with the Americans she is around.

War is portrayed as something emotional that every living being goes through in their lifetime. Most of the people experience.

Most families are complicated but supportive. For example, a family could argue a lot, but still love one another. In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” mama still supports her daughters even though, they’re not around much. Their issues are not unique because my family has its issues, too. The family in “Everyday Use” and my family both have similarities and differences regarding siblings, bonds, and mothers.

Family will always be your most loyal supporter, reinforcement, and backing, through rain or shine. Although this idea is common in our society today, it is not always the truth. Some families are not as close to each other and are not always the most supportive. Dicey’s commitment and devotedness to her family, and them to her, amazed, as well as moved, me immensely. This Cynthia Voigt book was very well written, and all those whom enjoy earnest and heartwarming stories should take this book to heart.

It is cherishing how family always supports each other no matter the circumstance. Family cares for each other even if someone is on the other side of the country. They always want each other to be happy and have the ability to create lifelong memories. Family will never stop worrying about each other in life. They love each other with all their soul and want them to succeed in everything.