The "F" Word

Page 65:

"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. Even though I had graduated with honors from UC-Berkeley, 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 résumé. 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."

It amazes me how cruel and discriminatory people can be to others. So much discrimination takes place because of what? Different ethnic backgrounds. Yet we all have ancestors from somewhere with different nationalities. The United States is nothing other than a melting pot of different nationalities, religions, backgrounds, and skin color. So what gives someone the right to pick on someone else for their background when they came from somewhere else too? Everyone likes Firoozeh until they find out she's Iranian, but why should that matter? The Iranian Revolution may have taken place, however it's astonishing that people will blame an entire population for just a small group's doings. Despite the discrimination pointed toward Firoozeh, she continues to show her strength all throughout the book, because she knows that she has just as much of a right to be in America as anyone else.

Page 67:

"One mom at my children's school adamantly refuses to learn my "impossible" name and instead settled on calling me "F Word." She was recently transferred to New York where, from what I've heard, she might meet an immigrant or two and, who knows, she just might have to make room in her spice cabinet."

So many hardships have been posed for Firoozeh, however she doesn't let them fade her. This women at her children's school was just another inconvenience that she didn't let bother her. Instead she side-stepped the problem and continued to live her life in America. These little things are what continues to make Firoozeh such a strong character. Her strength comes through every time someone is discriminative toward her, her background, or her country.

Another reason this passage stood out to me was because the author continues to show her unique writing style. She uses so many similes and metaphors that add to the book so much. Comparing immigrants and their acceptance to a spice cabinet is extremely clever, and her cleverness repeatedly comes through in her funny ways of comparing things to one another.