Abstract
Funny In Farsi written by Firoozeh Dumas was firstly published in 2003. It tells about the experiences of Iranian immigrants living in the United States of America. There are some problems that were faced by them. Dumas pictures such experiences through the life of her own family; the Jayazeris. There are two problems discussed in this thesis. The first is the relationship between the context of the real life of the Iranian living in America and the story in the novel.. The second is the process of the dependency complex existence. Wilbur S. Scott's psychological approach is used to analyze the relationship between the context of the real life and the story in the novel. This psychological approach is used to describe the author's life to understand the creative process of the work. It is found that the context of the real life really influence and inspire the story told in the novel. Frantz Fanon's dependency complex theory is used to analyze the problems which mostly appeared in the novel. Those problems are the attempts of the American to make the Iranian inferior. Dependency complex theory describes these attempts as racism, anti-Semitic mentality, and Prospero complex which are then called the backgrounds of dependency complex in this thesis. The attempts to make the Iranian inferior eventually result a psychological complex called dependency complex. This complex, which was suffered by the Jayazeris, can be seen through their inferiority complex and the unconscious which are then called the signs of dependency complex in this thesis. Describing the backgrounds and the signs absolutely shows the the existence process of the Jayazeris' dependency complex and proves that the Jayazeris suffer it. At last, hopefully this study can warn the readers not to be inferior when they meet the races which are considered better. They have to be proud of their own racial and national identity.
Keywords: Backgrounds, Dependency Complex, Inferior, Relationship, Signs.
Abstrak
Funny In Farsi yang ditulis oleh Firoozeh Dumas pertama kali diterbitkan pada tahun 2003. Novel ini menceritakan pengalaman para imigran asal Iran yang tinggal di Amerika Serikat. Ada beberapa masalah yang dihadapi mereka. Dumas menggambarkan pengalaman tersebut lewat kehidupan keluarganya; keluarga Jayazeri. Ada dua permasalahan yang didiskusikan dalam penelitian ini. Pertama adalah hubungan antara konteks kehidupan nyata orang-orang Iran yang tinggal di Amerika dan cerita pada novel. Kedua adalah proses eksistensi kompleks ketergantungan. Pendekatan psikologi yang ditulis Wilbur S. Scott digunakan untuk menganalisa hubungan antara konteks kehidupan nyata dan cerita pada novel. Pendekatan psikologi ini digunakan untuk menjelaskan kehidupan penulis untuk memahami proses kreatif karyanya. Ditemukan kalau konteks kehidupan nyata benar-benar mempengaruhi dan menginspirasi cerita yang diceritakan dalam novel. Teori kompleks ketergantungan milik Frantz Fanon digunakan untuk menganalisa masalah -masalah yang paling sering muncul dalam novel. Masalah-masalah tersebut adalah usaha-usaha orang Amerika untuk membuat orang-orang iran merasa rendah. Teori kompleks ketergantungan menjelaskan usaha-usaha tersebut sebagai rasisme, mental anti-semite, dan kompleks Prospero yang kemudian disebut sebagai latar belakang dari kompleks ketergantungan dalam penelitian ini. Usaha-usaha untuk membuat orang-orang merasa rendah pada akhirnya menghasilkan kompleks psikologi yang disebut kompleks ketergantungan. Kompleks ini, yang diderita oleh keluarga Jayazeri, dapat dilihat melalui kompleks perasaan rendah dan ketidaksadaran mereka yang kemudian disebut sebagai tanda-tanda dari kompleks ketergantungan dalam penelitian ini. Menjelaskan latar belakang dan tanda-tanda pastinya menunjukkan proses eksistensi dari kompleks ketergantungan keluarga Jayazeri dan membuktikan kalau keluarga Jayazeri menderita kompleks tersebut. Yang terakhir, penelitian ini diharapkan bisa memperingatkan pembaca untuk tidak merasa rendah ketika mereka bertemu dengan ras-ras yang dianggap lebih baik. Mereka harus bangga dengan identitas ras dan nasional milik mereka sendiri.
Kata Kunci: Hubungan, Kompleks Ketergantungan, Latar Belakang, Merasa Rendah, Tanda-tanda.
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Supiastutik (Pembimbing I), L. Dyah P. W. S. W. W. (Pembimbing II) Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Jember (UNEJ)
Jln. Kalimantan 37, Jember 68121 E-mail: tutikjuhanda@gmail.com
Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's
Funny In Farsi
Introduction
The real experiences of Firoozeh Dumas’s life are retold through her 2003 novel as she writes in the subtitle of it; A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America. Memoir is:
“Unlike autobiography, which moves in a dutiful line from birth to fame, memoir narrows the lens, focusing on a time in the writer’s life that was unusually vivid, such as childhood or adolescence or that was framed by war or travel or public service or some other special circumstance.” (Zinsser, 1998:15)
It must be the experience of someone got from his real life. It can be absolutely said that Funny in Farsi is the experience of Firoozeh Dumas. In other words, the story of the novel is a a real experience.
What makes the novel interesting to be observed is the behavior of the characters. Their thoughts also make him excited to find out what happened to them. It seems that they had mind-sets saying that United States of America was a place where they belonged to. Whereas, their physical appearances were so far from what to be called American. Everything in their life would be better in any aspect rather than living in their birth country, Iran.
The theory about dependency complex was found in Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Mask when it was felt that it was exciting to research what happened to The Jayazeris in the novel Funny in Farsi. Based on the interest to the behaviors and thoughts of the characters and the theory that describes dependency complex, it was finally decided to study the dependency complex in the novel entitled Funny in Farsi written by Firoozeh Dumas through the life of the Jayazeris.
Based on the explanation above, there are two things discussed in this research. The relationship between the story in the novel and the context of the real life of Iranian people living in United States of America and how dependency complex exists among Iranian people in the United States of America.
Research Methodology
Powell and Renner (2003:1) state that qualitative research uses qualitative data that consist of words and observation because no number is absolutely concluded. Moreover, Richie and Lewis (2003:5) state that qualitative research is a research suitable to address research questions that require understanding and explanation of social phenomena and their context. It can be precisely concluded that this research is a qualitative research because this consists of words without number and discusses social phenomena.
The purpose of qualitative research is to reach the deep interpretation and understanding on the social phenomena through investigating the social and material environment experience, world view and way of life of the participants.
So does this research. The researcher wants to reveal everything behind the social phenomena that is called the dependency complex that happens to the Jayazeris in the novel Funny in Farsi of Firoozeh Dumas by using the theories of Frantz Fanon and O. Mannoni. The phenomenon observed by Fanon is theoretically similar to what happens to the Jayazeris when they lived in America. Then, the theory of Fanon of the dependency complex is used to explain the social phenomena in the novel.
Blexter et al. (2006:154) state that there are four methods of data collection that consist of interview, observation, questionnaire, and documentary method. Documentary method is the only method used to conduct the research. It is a method of collecting data by using written material as the source of the research. The method requires a lot of information from written materials including the researches of other researchers and the books explaining the used theories.
Blexter et al. (2006:153) state that the primary data is original data that has never been collected and secondary data is the data that has been possibly analyzed by the other researcher. The primary source of data of this research is obviously the novel of Firoozeh Dumas Funny in Farsi. The secondary ones are the books related to the discussion of the dependency complex are used to analyze the social phenomena that happened to the Jayazeris while they lived in America.
Shaw (1972:107) states that an inductive method is always from the specific to general. So is this research. The researcher very firstly read the novel and found the social and psychological phenomena that happened to the characters in the novel. Then the sources related to the theory of phenomena that is called dependency complex were collected and one theory was chosen. Particular information from the theory was listed before going further to the primary data of the research, the novel Funny in Farsi. The theory chosen is Frantz Fanon’s dependency complex.
Then the researcher listed the explanations of it. Fundamentally it shows the backgrounds causing the behaviors of dependence and the characteristics of the sufferers. The backgrounds are anti-Semitic mentality, Prospero complex, and racism. The characteristics are inferiority complex and the unconscious. These backgrounds and characteristics are used to examine the behavior of the characters in the novel.
Result
In the discussion of this thesis, it has been proven that the real experience of Iranian-American really influence the writing process of Dumas. The stories in Funny In Farsi which have the same backgrounds with the real experiences are presented by Dumas. Therefore, this discussion has answered the first research question. How is the relationship between the story in the novel and the context of the real life of Iranian people living in the United States of America? In simple words, the answer is that the real life experience influence the creative process of writing the story. The real experience is the inspiration to make the story.
The aspect of the novel discussed in this thesis is the dependency complex of the Jayazeris, the characters in the novel. Since what is asked in this research is the process of the dependency complex existence among the Jayazeris, the answer must be steps of how the backgrounds behind dependency complex come to the inferiority complex and the unconscious and the actions reflecting them. All the backgrounds have the same treatment. It is making other people inferior. If this succeeds, dependency complex will appear. This happened to the Jayazeris when they live in the white world, the United States of America. The American succeeded making the Iranian including the Jayazeris become truly inferior. In this research, it is called inferior complex. After that, it is followed by their unconscious which made them dependent to the American. It is called dependency complex. Dependency complex is the result of the process from racism, anti-Semitic mentality, and Prospero complex to inferiority complex and the unconscious.
Discussion
Racial discrimination was felt by many Iranians who lived in the United States and one of them was Mohsen Mobasher who had written his experiences through a book entitled Iranian in Texas: Migration, Politics, and Ethnic Identity. Racism really leads people to feel inferior and this phenomenon had happened to him as Mobasher (in Ulack, 2013) says:
“Although I have spent two-thirds of my life in this country, developed strong friendship ties with many Americans, and gained a deep appreciation for American culture, I still feel like a foreigner, an outsider on the margins of American society.”
Racism that happened to Iranian living in America was caused by the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981. The American’s hatred began to grow since that moment happened. This explanation shows the moment:
“The feeling of marginalization, he says, is shared by many Iranian immigrants. He argues that it is largely caused by the
contentious political relationship between the U.S. and Iran, distorted media images and stereotypes of Iranians (and, more generally, people from the Middle East) and the profiling and discriminatory policies that were put into effect first during the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981 and later, after the september 11, 2001, attacks on the United States (Ulack, 2013).”
This shows how actions that were done by some people could give big effects to many others. Since the hostage crisis happened, the relationship between Iran and the United States was broken. The consequence was that Iranians living in the United States got the impact of the crisis.
The other experiences that lead Iranian people to feel inferior are moments related to anti-Semitic mentality and Prospero Complex. Anti-Semitic mentality is defined as a passion of authorizing other people’s wealth and Prospero complex is a feeling that one and his group are the only respectable people. Both complexes have the same treatment to get the goals. That is making other people inferior. That’s why these backgrounds really have roles to make people dependent and inferior.
Moments represent anti-Semitic mentality and Prospero Complex in the life on Iranian is when British Petroleum tried to authorize the oil of Iran. That moment shows that the British wanted to have Iran’s wealth. Kinzer (2010) tells:
“The history of the company we now call BP has over the last 100 years, traced the arc of transnational capitalism. Its roots lie in the early years of the twentieth century when a wealthy bon vivant named William Knox D’Arcy decided with encouragement from the British government to begin looking for oil in Iran. He struck a concession agreement with the absolute Iranian monarchy, using the proven expedient of bribing the three Iranians negotiating with him.”
The phrase “encouragement from the British government” really shows the superiority of the white that the British were the only respectable people.
The British’s greed also shows that they were the only people who had to be respected and they could do everything they wanted.
The British’s Prospero Complex was followed by their passion to get Iranian’s wealth. From this moment, it could be clearly seen that the anti-Semitic mentality of the British was very strong. Then they started to make the Iranian inferior when Iranian government declared their oil natinalization.
Iranian oil nationalization was done to prove that the Iranian didn’t want to be dependent anymore. This attempt is shown in this story:
“In Iran, nationalism meant one thing: we’ve got to take back our oil. Driven by this passion, parliament voted on April 28, 1951, to choose. Its most passionate champion of oil nationalization, Mohammad Mosadegh as prime minister. Days later, it unanimously approved his bill nationalizing the oil company. Mosadegh promised that, henceforth, oil profits would be used to develop Iran, not enrich Britain (Kinzer, 2010).”
Unfortunately, the British still had their Prospero Complex so they showed their power to make the Iranian inferior. They underestimated the decision and made rules without any agreement from the Iranian.
“To the British, nationalization seemed, at first, like some kind of immense joke, a step so absurdly contrary to the unwritten rules of the world that it could hardly be real. Early in this confrontation, the directors of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and their partners in Britain’s government settled on their strategy: no meditation, no compromise, no acceptance of nationalization in any form (Kinzer, 2010).”
To make the Iranian inferior, as the treatment of the Prospero Complex, the British began boycotting them Kinzer (2010) tells:
“They withdrew their technicians from Abadan, blockaded the port, cut off exports of vital goods to Iran, froze the country’s hard currency accounts in British banks, and tried to win anti-Iran resolutions from the U.N. and the World Court. This campaign only intensified Iranian determination. Finally, the British turned to Washington and asked for a favor: please overthrow this madman for us so we can have our oil company back.”
Finally, the British succeeded making the Iranian inferior. British Petroleum reauthorized Iranian oil, the Iranian became dependent again to the British.
“The oil company re-branded itself as British Petroleum, BP Amoco, and then, in 2000, BP. During its decades in Iran, it had operated as it pleased, with little regard for the interests of local people.
This corporate tradition has evidently remained strong (Kinzer, 2010).”
The stories in Funny In Farsi are partly influenced by the context of the Iranian’s real life. Those include racism, anti-Semitic mentality, and Prospero Complex as the backgrounds of the stories. Here are the stories reflecting the experiences related to racism, anti-Semitic mentality, and Prospero Complex.
Dumas’s story which clearly shows the same moment with the Iranian’s real life is when the hostage crisis happened. During and after the crisis, the Iranian living in the United States got discriminated and hated. Dumas (2003:39) tells:
“During our stay in Newport Beach, the Iranian Revolution took place and a group of Americans were taken hostage in the American Embassy in Tehran. Overnight, Iranians living in America became, to say the least, very unpopular. Fot some reason, many Americans began to think that all Iranians, despiteoutward appearances, to the contrary, could at any given moment get angry and take prisoners.”
Because of the hostage crisis, many Iranians got difficulties in life. As explained in the previous chapter, during and after the hostage crisis, the American began to make the Iranian’s life difficult. Dumas’s father got fired from his foreign company where he had worked for long: “But with the Iranian Revolution, my father’s world turned upside down. The building of more refineries in Iran was halted and overnight my father’s expertise was no longer needed (Dumas, 2003:116).” The other difficulty is shown when Dumas and her father were difficult to find jobs after the hostage crisis:
“When I went to college, I eventually went back to using my real name. All was well until I graduated and started looking for a job. Eventhough I had graduated with honors from UC-Barkeley, I couldn’t get a single interview. I was guilty of being a humanities major but I began to suspect that there was more to my problems. After three months of rejections, I added “Julie” to my resume. Call it coincidence, but the job offers started coming in. Perhaps it’s the same kind of coincidence that keeps African Americans from getting cabs in New York (Dumas, 2003:65).”
Moreover, the other nation in the same continent with Iran followed the American attitude. Iran was hated by not only the American but also the Asian:
this time. We thought you were an Arab (Dumas, 2003:58).”
These moments really show that nobody seemed wanting to hire the Iranian. Racism was very strong at that time.
Such racism experience leads Dumas to make stories with racism background. She tells her experience when she was in the first time coming to the United States. Without obvious reason, the new people Dumas and her mother met stared strangely to them. “My mother and I sat in the back while all the children took their assigned seats. Everyone continued to stare at us (Dumas, 2003:4).”
Then the discrimination grew to joking what Iranians had, physically and mentally:
“ “Hey, can I ask you a question?” he said. “Sure!” I answered.
“Well,” he said, “do you look down a lot?” “No, why?” I asked.
“Well, your nose points downward so I figured that’s because you’re always looking at the ground or something.” Upon hearing this, all the kids around me burst out laughing (Dumas, 2003:46).”
Dumas’s stories about anti-Semitic mentality and Prospero Complex are not far different from what Mobasher has told. These stories are when the British came to Iran for the oil. This experience absolutely influenced her to make the story of the British’s arrival in her book. That’s why Dumas put this story because it was plated so deeply.
“What brought the Shah to Abadan was its seemingly endless oil supply. This national gift was a mixed blessing, a bit like having a garden that stands out in the entire neighborhood. You know that, eventually, somebody’s going to come and pick your flowers while you’re sleeping. In our case, It was the British who came for the oil (Dumas, 2003:83).”
This moment shows that the British really wanted to authorize Iranian oil but Dumas uses figurative language in her writing which is quite different from the writing style of historical document.
Part of Dumas’s stories also tells the Prospero complex of the British. It can be seen when the British’s arrogancy appeared to take Iranian oil and gave low payment to Iran. This is an action of showing power which means they were the only people who had to be respected. Dumas (2003:83-84) tells:
“The British were the first to realize the huge financial potential of the vast Iranian oil reserves. With the sound of cash registers ringing in its executive’s ears, British Petroleum negotiated an agreement with the Iranian government that allowed the British to drill for and sell the oil in exchange for a small sum.”
The Prospero complex and the anti-Semitic mentality of the British were combined then greed was created. This
greed leaded to the disaster breaking the agreement between British and Iran. “The British applied a different universal concept, greed. The agreement between British Petroleum and the government of Iran was destined for disater (Dumas, 2003:84).” Then Iran declared it, They became angry.
The British’s Prospero complex gained to be high. They wanted to show their power by boycotting Iran which made Iran in a difficult situation.
“Unwillingly to simply walk away from their golden-egg-laying goose, the foreign oil companies banded together and boycotted Iranian oil resulting in a huge economic downturn. Within two years after the nationalization of its oil, the Iranian economy lay in shambles. Political upheaval ensued (Dumas, 2003:84).”
The Iranian crisis made them very inferior. The British showed their anti-Semitic mentality again by succeeding making Iran inferior and authorizing Iranian oil again. “History partly repeated itself and the foreign oil companies once again took over the operation and exploitation of the Iranian oil industry (Dumas, 2003:84).”
Those are the stories of Dumas which were really influenced by the Iranian-American’s experiences. The stories show that the real life becomes the inspiration in the process of Dumas’s writing. If there is a question asking how the relationship between Dumas’s stories and Iranian-American’s real life is, the answer must be that the real life is an obvious influence and inspiration to her stories in Funny In Farsi.
It’s been explained that the backgrounds of people who live in the white world and become dependency complex sufferers are racism, anti-Semitic mentality, and Prospero complex. It’s been just mentioned what the examples are. In this explanation, it will be the processes of these backgrounds leading to signs of dependency complex.
The first background is racism. Racism, as explained, is something that leads ones to underestimation to other races. There are so many reasons that describe the appearance of this hatred. One of them can be jealousy. What kind of jealousy makes someone underestimate other races? The answer will be certainly jealousy of being the greatest race. It seems that people of other races have been better in some aspects. An example has been shown by Dumas (2003:117-118) when she tells, “Perhaps the greatest irony in the wave of Iranian-hating was that Iranians, as a group, are among the most educated and successful immigrants in this country. Our work ethic and obsession with education makes us almost ideal citizens.”
superior race feel inferior which then lead them to inferiority complex as Oswin (in Fanon, 1986:64-65) says:
“...what is proposed is the separation of the native from the Europeans, territorially, economically, and on the political level, allowing the blacks to build their own civilization under the guidance and the authority of the whites, but with a minimum contact between the races. It is understood that territorial reservations would be set up for the blacks and that most of them would have to live there.”
Separating the natives of place and authorizing them are the examples of underestimation. The whites are not the people who live there. If they do not underestimate the blacks, they will not command the blacks even make them alienated from their own place. Separating the blacks also will make them inferior in number and power. “Economic competition would be eliminated and the groundwork would be laid for the rehabilitation of the poor whites who constitute 50 percent of the European population (Oswin, in Fanon, 1986:65).” This shows the effort to make the native inferior in number by adding the comers. Therefore, racism can lead other people to the inferiority complex because racism is mostly an effort to make others inferior consciously or unconsciously by restoring people from the place where they should be. Fanon states:
“When one tries to examine the structure of this or that form of exploitation from an abstract point of view, one simply turns one’s back on the major, basic problem, which is that of restoring man to his proper place (1986:65).”
It can be concluded that making others inferior is the process of how racism makes persons possess inferiority complex.
The second background possessed by dependency complex sufferer is anti-Semitic mentality. It is described by Fanon as an effort to make other inferior due to a feeling to possess or authorize other people’s wealth through Sartre’s explanation: “It is propagated mainly among middle classes, because they possess neither land nor house nor castle. By treating the Jew as an inferior and pernicious being, I affirm at the same time that I belong to the elite (in Fanon, 1986:64).”
Before it comes to the step of making others inferior, there is a step behind. It is a treatment of showing the power of superiority although the ones who possess the anti-Semitic mentality are less in number. “Thus I would call anti-Semitism a poor man’s snobbery. And in fact it would appear that the rich for the most part exploit this passion for their own uses rather tahn abandon themselves to it – they have better things to do (Sartre, in Fanon, 2003:64).” This shows that not only the poor but also the rich choose not to be frontal like the poor. Sartre also quotes, “By treating the Jew as an inferior and pernicious being, I affirm at the same time that I belong to the elite.”
They have a will to be the elite. It means that they want to be seen as powerful people. Although they don’t possess anything in the place they settle, they have a feeling to be superior by showing that they are powerful. By showing this power of superiority, at the same time they make the natives or the others inferior that then leads to the inferiority complex. It can be concluded that before the people who have anti-Semitic mentality make the others inferior, they show the power of superiority.
The last background that affects people become inferior is Prospero complex. It is defined as a thought that one is the only person who has to be respected. It can be developed that his race is the most respectable race. In the process of coming to the step of making others inferior, showing the power of superiority is involved like the process of anti-Semitic mentality coming to the inferiority complex. The difference is the causes. There are some causes that make someone get this complex. The fear to bad treatments of inferior people and the urge to dominate (Mannoni, 1964:108) are the reasons. This urge to dominate is the thing leading to a will to show the superiority. When one feels superior automatically he will treat others inferior as explained in the anti-Semitic mentality. This treatment will make others get inferiority complex.
Inferiority complex is described as a feeling which one has to be inferior in number or power. In the previous chapter, some examples of inferiority complex have been described and shown caused by the backgrounds causing dependency complex. In this chapter, other examples are shown although there are no backgrounds explained behind them. Since inferiority complex is a sign of dependency complex, this chapter will show and prove that the Jayazeris have dependency complex through showing this sign.
vocabularies. The result is absolutely that he felt inferior by staying in one place and avoiding meeting the native people.
Another attitude that shows one gets inferior is that he doesn’t admit his race even is shy to show his racial identity. This is because she feels that discrimination will come to him as shown by Fanon:
“In other words, I begin to suffer from not being a white man to the degree that the white man imposes discrimination on me, makes me a colonized native, robs me of all worth, all individuality, tells me that I am a parasite on the world, that I must bring myself as quickly as possible into step with the white world (1986:73).”
Being non-white people will lead to the fear of being discriminated. Therefore, the result is that they will pretend to be the part of the white as the superior.
This attitude also appears in Dumas’s story when she tells that her mother was proud and always gushed that she was also European eventhough she was completely Iranian. Dumas (2003:37) tells, “In Abadan, people always asked my mother whether she was European. “Well,” she’d always gush, “my aunt lives in Germany.” “ Another moment which also shows this attitude is when Dumas tells that her having been covering as European would be broken if her mother spoke in English. “As long as we didn’t open our mouths, we looked as if we belonged. But just one of my mother’s signature rambling sentences without a verb (“Shop so good very happy at Sears”), and our cover was blown (Dumas, 2003:37).” This shows that she didn’t want to be identified as Iranian and this proves that she and her mother felt inferior. The other moment that shows this attitude is when the hostage crisis happened in Iran. The American began to discriminate Iranians living in the United States by joking and commenting everything bad about Iran. Fear appeared among the Jayazeris and created their inferiority through this moment: “My mother solved the problem by claiming to be from Russia or “Torekey” (Dumas, 2003:39).” They were scared to admit their racial identity because they felt inferior. Not only the Jayazeris but also many Iranians were attacked by fear due to discrimination as Dumas (2003:117) tells, “Many Iranians suddenly became Turkish, Russian, or French.”
When one feels inferior, he wants to be acknowledged by the superior people. It’s clear that the result is that he wants to be like the superior people. One of the ways to copy the superior people is changing his original name. Dumas (2003:63) tells, “When I was twelve, I decided to simplify my life by adding an American middle name.” She wanted to make her life simple because his original name was discriminated by the people there. Discrimination is kind of annoyance for everyone. That was the reason she changed her name. Later her brothers also changed their names although they firstly thought that it was stupid policy. “My brothers, Farid and Farshid, thought that
adding an American name was totally stupid. They later became Fred and Sean (Dumas, 2003:64).”
In conclusion, the Jayazeris got inferiority complex because they were scared to admit their racial identity because of the discrimination. So, the result is that they wanted to copy everything about the superior people. The Jayazeris felt inferior in number and power. Feeling inferior in number was because Iranians were absloutely fewer that Americans. Feeling inferior in power is because Iranians were discriminated by the Americans and they could’t fight back because they were fewer.
The unconscious is described as feeling of admiration to the superior. In this case, they are the white people. The white or the superior, are people who are considered higher in everything. It is something that people suffering the unconscious have in mind. The white are never thought as bad people although they’ve done a lot of bad things. Many inferior people, including Iranians living in the United States, really admire and welcome the white people. This has been explained in this statement:
“When it is the matter of understanding why shipwrecked Europeans were welcomed with open arms; why the European, the foreigner was never thought of as an enemy, instead of explaining these things in terms of humanity, of good will of courtesy basic characteristics of what Cesaire calls “the old courtly civilization,” scholars tell us that. It happened quite simply because, inscribed in “faithful hieroglyphics – specifically, the unconscious - there exists something that makes the white man the awaited master. Yes, the uncoscious – we have got to that (Fanon, 1986:74).”
The unconscious happens as the result of inferiority complex. When one suffers inferiority complex, the unconscious will follow. Fanon (1986:74) says in his book: “My patient is suffering from an inferiority complex. His psychic structure is in danger of disintegration. What has to be done is to save him from this and little by little, to rid him of this unconscious desire.” His statement really shows that the unconscious is followed by the existence of inferiority complex.
One of the effects of inferiority complex which is also included in the unconscious’s real applications is that the sufferers want to be the white or like the white. Fanon explains this in his book:
difficulties for him, he will find himself thrust into a neurotic situation (1986:74).” Fanon calls this as a hallucinatory whitening.
Dumas’s stories also show the unconscious. It happens mostly to her father. In the beginning of Funny In Farsi, she directly tells this phenomenon. Her father really dreamed of studying abroad, especially in countries where white people live as she tells, “Like most Iranian youths he had always dreamed of attending college abroad and despite my mother’s tears, he had left us to live with my uncle and his American wife (Dumas, 2003:3).”
After dreaming living in the white world , her father started to try to get there and he was able to study there. The level of his unconsciousness seemed increasing after living in the United States for long. Firstly he dreamed it, then he was in the level of admiring the United States. “Having spent several years in Texas and California as a graduate student, my father often spoke about America with the eloquence and wonder normally reserved for a first love (Dumas, 2003:3).” In the following chapter, her father shows the same admiration through this moment: “Having spent years regaling us with stories about his graduate years in America, he had left us with the distinct impression that America was his second home (Dumas, 2003:8).”
Dumas, the author of Funny In Farsi, also shows her unconscious in her writing. She seemed to suffer to be Iranian and hope to be the white. Hallucinatory whitening happened to her as this statement: “This is why in my next life, I am applying to come back as a Swede (Dumas, 2003:41).” From this, it can be seen that she really wanted to be a white person and was regretful to be Iranian.
The unconscious is also represented in Dumas’s style of writing. In the previous paragraphs, it has been explained that one having the unconscious extremely admires everything about the white people. This also appears in her style of writing that shows she also gets the unconscious through this footage of her story: “Nobody is more devoted to Farshid’s decisiomaking prowess than my parents, and Farshid, like James Bond, has never turned down an assignment (Dumas, 2013:43).” Everybody knows that James Bond is an iconic figure of the United States. Dumas, an Iranian woman, didn’t use a figure from her country. There must be question why she chose an American figure. The only answer is that she had the unconscious which means that she suffers dependency complex.
Dumas’s wanting to be white also can be seen from her unsatisfaction of living in Iran. Then she compared to the life in America which seemed more fascinating and better. She tells:
“When we moved to America, I discovered that school was much more fun here. There was less homework, no endless math drills, and no memorization of famous poems. I loved my teacher, Mrs. Sandberg. I loved Girl Scouts, the Whittier Public Library, and Butterfinger candy bars. I loved
Halloween. The Brady Bunch, and free toys in cereal boxes. It seemed to me that life in America was one long series of festivities, all of them celebrated with merriment and chocolate (Dumas, 2003:105).”
She started to like everything in the United States. She got the unconscious.
The unconscious also attacked Dumas’s uncle when he got problems in Iran and one of them was getting divorced twice. He decided to move to the United States and stopped his job as a doctor for a while as Dumas (2003:24) tells, “After my uncle’s second divorce, he decided to take a break from his medical practice in Ahwaz and come visit us in Whittier.” He wanted to go to the United States because it was implicitly told that he thought the white world was better. It’s again shown in this story: “My amoo had a successful practicing in Ahwaz and enjoyed a life of luxury up until the Iranian Revolution. He and his family fled to America. In 1980 with just a few belongings (Dumas, 2003:101).”
The unconscious was also got by Dumas’s mother. How unconsciousness can be seen through a moment when she considered an American figure as a perfect character. Dumas (2003:108) tells:
“My mother thought Brooke Shields, in the dozen differents outfitsshe wore for each show, was the embodient of perfection. I couldn’t understand why Brooke, who is the same age as I am, never went through an awkward adolescent stage. I wished I could be Brooke Shields. So, did my mom.”
Explicitly, she wanted to be like that American figure. The hallucinatory whitening really attacked really attacked Dumas’s mother. Not only her mother but also Dumas, her father, and her uncle had this characteristic of dependency complex, the unconscious.
Conclusion
Funny In Farsi really represents the experience of Iranian-American's life. The real life experience influence the creative process of Dumas's writing the story. The real experience is her inspiration to make the story. From what happened to the Jayazeris and the complexes they had, it can be concluded that the Jayazeris suffered dependency complex. They were dependent to the American until they seemed forgetting their own national identity,
Acknowledgements
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