Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi (Kompleks Ketergantungan Keluarga Jayazeri Dalam Funny In Farsi Karya Firoozeh Dumas)
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
(Kompleks Ketergantungan Keluarga Jayazeri Dalam Funny In Farsi Karya
Firoozeh Dumas)
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
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.
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
Dhion Faqih Pradana, 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.
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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.
After listing the entire explanations of the theory and
having wholly understood it, the behaviors of the characters
or what the characters did in the novel were observed and
categorized based on the explanation of the theory. Before
going to the characteristics, the backgrounds were observed
through the events and circumstances supporting the plot of
the story in the novel. The same analysis is used to examine
the characteristics. The characters’ behaviors, attitudes, and
feelings were described by using the dependency complex
theory.
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
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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.
“Under the contract, which he assigned,
D’Arcy was to own whatever oil he found
in Iran and he made – never allowing any
Iranian to review his accounting. After
his first strike in 1908, he lies beneath
Iran’s oil. No one else was allowed to
drill for, refine, extract, or sell “Iranian”
oil (Kinzer,2010).”
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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.
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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:
“Before signing the final papers, the lawyer
asked for his passport, a requirement for
any overseas job. At the sight on the
Iranian passport, the lawyer turned pale
and said, “I am sorry, but the government
of Saudi Arabia does not accept Iranians at
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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 (2003:8384) 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
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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 IranianAmerican’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 (2003:117118) 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.”
Racism, when it was done to immigrants whose race is
different from the race of the place they settle, will make
them inferior in numbers and power. Immigrants of a
country are never superior in numbers but they can
superior in power. The race who feels superior in power
can make the people who are underestimated by the
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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.”
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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.
Dumas tells her father in most parts of the storis. She
unconsciously tells that her father got inferiority complex.
He had spent few years and didn’t speak English fluently.
Then, it was discovered that he didn’t go out so often.
What he did was staying in the library and reading a lot of
books, as Dumas (2003:9) tells, “We soon discovered that
his college years had been spent mainly in the library,
where he had managed to avoid contact with all Americans
except his engineering professors.” The reason of his
staying in the library is that he avoided people there. There
must be a question why he did such thing. The answer is
that he spoke English which most people there didn’t
really understand and the result was that he got a kind of
broken heart as shown in this moment: “Somewhere
between his thick Persian accent and his use of vocabulary
found in pre-World War II British textbooks, my father
spoke a private language. That nobody understood him
hurt his pride (Dumas, 2003:9).” It clearly shows that his
inferiority complex was caused by his inability to be like
the people there. He was unable to copy the accent of the
native people of English. He had a few English
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
7
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:
“If he is overwhelmed to such a degree by
the wish to be the white, it is because he
lives in a society that makes his inferiority
complex possible, in a society that derives
its stability from the perpetuation of this
complex, in a society that proclaims the
superiority of one race; to the identical
degree to which that society creates
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
8
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
My sincere thanks to Dra. Supiastutik, M.Pd, my first
supervisor, who has encouraged and given me a valuable
assistance to finish this study, and L. Dyah Purwita
Wardanai S. W. W., S.S., M.A, my second supervisor, for
unwavering guidance and patience throughout the entire
process of my study.
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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Edition. NewYork: Open University Press.
Dumas, F. 2003. Funny In Farsi. New York: Random House Trade
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(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/384500/minority, accessed on
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Gillis, M. 2008. “Iranian American”. (Online),
(http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Iranian-Americans.html, accessed
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(http://www.ruralhome.org/storage/research_note/rrn-race-and-ethnicityweb.pdf, accessed on February 14th, 2015).
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George G. Harrap & Co.
Jones, Jr. and Edward, H. 1960. Outlines of Literature. New York: Mc.
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(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bp-and-iran-the-forgotten-history/, accessed
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Lewis, J. and Ritchie, J. 2003. Qualitative Research: A Guide for Social
Science Students and Researchers. London: Sage Publications.
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and Iranian Culture in Humorous Fragments in Funny in Farsi”. Unpublished.
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Edition. New York: Routledge.
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(http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/CairoReview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?
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Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
9
1
Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
(Kompleks Ketergantungan Keluarga Jayazeri Dalam Funny In Farsi Karya
Firoozeh Dumas)
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
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.
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
Dhion Faqih Pradana, 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.
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
2
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.
After listing the entire explanations of the theory and
having wholly understood it, the behaviors of the characters
or what the characters did in the novel were observed and
categorized based on the explanation of the theory. Before
going to the characteristics, the backgrounds were observed
through the events and circumstances supporting the plot of
the story in the novel. The same analysis is used to examine
the characteristics. The characters’ behaviors, attitudes, and
feelings were described by using the dependency complex
theory.
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
3
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.
“Under the contract, which he assigned,
D’Arcy was to own whatever oil he found
in Iran and he made – never allowing any
Iranian to review his accounting. After
his first strike in 1908, he lies beneath
Iran’s oil. No one else was allowed to
drill for, refine, extract, or sell “Iranian”
oil (Kinzer,2010).”
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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.
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
4
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:
“Before signing the final papers, the lawyer
asked for his passport, a requirement for
any overseas job. At the sight on the
Iranian passport, the lawyer turned pale
and said, “I am sorry, but the government
of Saudi Arabia does not accept Iranians at
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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 (2003:8384) 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
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
5
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 IranianAmerican’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 (2003:117118) 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.”
Racism, when it was done to immigrants whose race is
different from the race of the place they settle, will make
them inferior in numbers and power. Immigrants of a
country are never superior in numbers but they can
superior in power. The race who feels superior in power
can make the people who are underestimated by the
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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.”
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
6
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.
Dumas tells her father in most parts of the storis. She
unconsciously tells that her father got inferiority complex.
He had spent few years and didn’t speak English fluently.
Then, it was discovered that he didn’t go out so often.
What he did was staying in the library and reading a lot of
books, as Dumas (2003:9) tells, “We soon discovered that
his college years had been spent mainly in the library,
where he had managed to avoid contact with all Americans
except his engineering professors.” The reason of his
staying in the library is that he avoided people there. There
must be a question why he did such thing. The answer is
that he spoke English which most people there didn’t
really understand and the result was that he got a kind of
broken heart as shown in this moment: “Somewhere
between his thick Persian accent and his use of vocabulary
found in pre-World War II British textbooks, my father
spoke a private language. That nobody understood him
hurt his pride (Dumas, 2003:9).” It clearly shows that his
inferiority complex was caused by his inability to be like
the people there. He was unable to copy the accent of the
native people of English. He had a few English
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
7
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:
“If he is overwhelmed to such a degree by
the wish to be the white, it is because he
lives in a society that makes his inferiority
complex possible, in a society that derives
its stability from the perpetuation of this
complex, in a society that proclaims the
superiority of one race; to the identical
degree to which that society creates
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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
Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa 2015
8
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
My sincere thanks to Dra. Supiastutik, M.Pd, my first
supervisor, who has encouraged and given me a valuable
assistance to finish this study, and L. Dyah Purwita
Wardanai S. W. W., S.S., M.A, my second supervisor, for
unwavering guidance and patience throughout the entire
process of my study.
Dhion Faqih Pradana, Dependency Complex of the Jayazeris in Firoozeh Dumas's Funny In Farsi
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