Iranian-Americans in the Memoirs of Firoozeh Dumas: A Survey in Trans-Cultural Context

The search for identity comprises a major theme in modern literature, especially in the writing of memoirs. A memoir supports the idea that everybody has a story to tell and everybody's story counts. Firoozeh Dumas's memoirs deal with both external and internal factors that she confronts while living in a new country with new conditions. Unable to control the situations she faces, Dumas compares her native country Iran with her new country, the United States. In other words, she selects certain historical events and tries to translate Iranian culture to Americans with a humorous style. She gradually introduces her family members, cultural differences and inner conflicts of being both a Middle Easterner and an American. In her search for identity between two cultures, Dumas tries to show that Iranians and Americans truly have more in common than they have differences. This work intends to explore the effects of cultural differences in the life of a writer who grew up both in Iran and America. Furthermore, the book shows the importance of Dumas's narrative strategies for promoting cultural understanding and rethinking cultural and generational differences.