Firoozeh Dumas The F Word Analysis

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Word Count: 1399 Firoozeh Dumas argues how difficult it is for an immigrant with a foreign name to live in America in “The F Word.” The author describes her past troubles with having the Iranian name of Firoozeh. Children and adults alike pronounce it incorrectly and cause embarrassment and confusion. Dumas decided to start calling herself Julie in an effort to prevent inconvenience on the part of American tongues. Foreign names make immigrants feel alienated among a nation with names along the lines of Joe, Mary, Dave, Steve, and Sarah. Americans have become more willing to learn a foreign name. The melting pot of America forces natives to contort to the unfamiliar sounds of other languages. Yet, with this being said, for the…show more content…
She begins her argument by sharing some funny examples of what Americans call foreigners: Farbod was called Farthead, Farshid became Fartshit, and Arash was referred to as a rash. This approach breaks the ice and establishes a nonthreatening tone. She describes the linguistic style in Iran as “the sound usually made by actors in the final moments of a choking scene” (Dumas 606). Although humorous, the reader can imagine the style of speech. The author also describes the lack of foreign names in America by stating that “nobody without a mask and a cape has a z in his name” (Dumas 605). This causes the reader to think about how many unique names there really are in America, thus leading them further down the rabbit hole of Dumas’s argument. Dumas describes that Firoozeh means “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” (Dumas 606) in American. After a laugh or two, the reader relates with this mindset. Americans want to be accepting of foreigners, but the fear of offending a person of another race sometimes prevents them from starting an interaction. Dumas disguises this masterful emotional manipulation as a witty rant. The author describes her struggle between being called Firoozeh and Julie in an intensely comedic way: “I felt…show more content…
The reader immediately notices the absence of any hard evidence. She omitted statistics, facts, polls, and testimonies. Although this argument could be effectively made without the use of hard evidence, it would have been significantly stronger if Dumas chose to use hard evidence. She could have given a statistic of the number of foreigners in America or the amount of American citizens that have the name Firoozeh. This would have given the reader a better idea of how unique and unusual her name is in American society. Dumas could have also given a statistic or poll of the number of foreigners that changed their names after moving to America. This would demonstrate the lengths a person with a foreign name go in order to avoid the discomfort of living with an unusual name in American society. Dumas also makes a claim without backing them with hard evidence. She states that “[she] has found that Americans are now far more willing to learn new names, just as they’re far more willing to try new ethnic foods” (Dumas 608). There is no evidence to back this claim. How is the reader supposed to know that Americans are more open minded to learning foreign names? There is nothing to ground this claim. The reader is expected to blindly accept Dumas’s claim. Dumas also uses an ineffective analogy throughout her argument. She compares Americans learning ethnic

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