Skip to main content

Fun Home

Allison Bechdel's Fun Home, published in 2006, tells the story of Allison's own life. The term "fun home" comes from the funeral home that her family runs. The novel takes us through her complex family dynamics through both the written word, and illustrations. I think this is what makes this book so interesting because not only are we able to analyze the words on the page, but how she portrays through imagery as well. In the beginning of the book, we see Allison as a young girl while her father tries tell her how to dress and how to act to be a lady. However, after seeing a woman dressed like a man while out with her father, Allison's whole worldview changes. She first later comes out to her parents as lesbian, and the story picks up from there with the death of her father. It is also discovered by Allison that her dad engaged in homosexual affairs with underage boys during his lifetime. Between her father's death and her new knowledge, Allison makes it her mission to find out more about her dad throughout the story. 

For starters, Allison feels as though his death is connected to her somehow and almost feels like it's her fault. I feel as though she is using this as a way to get closer to her father as they both had trouble exploring their sexualities. However, I do not think there is a direct correlation between her coming out and his death as she seems to suggest in the book. I think if his death was a suicide it would’ve been a multitude of things to cause it. Despite all this, Allison’s digging after he fathers death reveals a lot of things to the reader and herself. As we discussed in class, she almost tries to finish his story but through herself. This created the Anti-Hero’s Journey that we were talking about. 

Comments

  1. Great post! I agree I think her imagery really adds on to the story. It is one of the only graphic novels I have read for school and I think it tells the story very well. I also agree with your point about the dad's death not tying to Allison. I don't think that it was Allison's fault because there were a lot of things going on at the time for him that just Allison wouldn't be the only thing. I do think that it is her attempt to get closer to her dad even after death because of their complicated relationship. I really like how you explain this in your blog post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. While Bechdel does suggest that she may have had something to do with her father's death, I think by the end of the book it's a little more open-ended. I agree there would have to be a multitude of factors and not just, "Oh my daughter's gay, that's it". I also think it is left open-ended because no one, not even Bechdel, knows what exactly lead to his death, which may not even have been suicide.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totally agree. It is not totally clear if Bruce's suicide is totally related, or if it was solely caused by Allison's coming out. However, it is interesting how their connection builds deeper along the lines of sexuality throughout the novel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's not really clear why Bruce died but I think your take on it totally makes sense. As you mentioned, Bruce at first doesn't want Alison to pursue her own sexuality because of his own repressed sexuality. He later introduces her to books and even has a talk with her in the car, opening up to her and subconsciously trying to guide her through her journey. It makes sense that Alison would have wanted to get even closer if her father was still alive and by analyzing his death, she still feels connected to him in a way. Great post.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Invisible Man: puppet on a string

Throughout Invisible Man,  Ellison hides many metaphors that relate to the narrators life. From the reoccurring theme of running to the coin bank at Marry's, but one particularly interesting one was the doll that pops up before the climax of the book. He stumbles upon Clifton (who he doesn't notice till later) advertising and selling racist puppet dolls. Like everyone else, the narrator finds himself sucked into the doll fascinated with how it moves, he doesn't even realize Clifton is the one selling the dolls nor does he get upset that they're racist dolls. The police eventually come and everyone runs away and the narrator grabs a doll off the ground later putting it into his brief case (another reoccurring metaphor). Upon picking it up he finally realizes how the doll was able to move, it had tiny black strings which Clifton were using to move it in such a way.  This scene essentially creates a puppet on a string metaphor. In many ways, the Narrator is the puppet on t...

Ragtime: Ending

The ending of the novel was quite unlike the way the rest of the book flowed. There were multiple complex stories and characters coming together to form one narrative. Along the way we got to see mother and her character development, along with fathers lack of it. We saw Houdini navigate his inner struggles and even finding his worth in some way as he continues to preform. We saw Coalhouse Walker and Sarah and their impact on the family and the world. We followed Mother's Younger Brother who's narrative seems to always be driven by other people, much like his name suggests. The book was relatively slow paced for the most part until the ending. The book took a deep inside look into all the characters and showed us how each reacts differently to the same situation. Such as how each family member reacted in a different way to Walker entering the home and coming into their lives. And even how he impacted them after.  The very end of the book seemed very rushed and vague. Almost li...

Beloved - Haunting and Trauma

 Beloved is a novel all about trying to forget the traumatic events of the past even though they keep coming back up. All Sethe does in the novel is try to escape her traumatic experiences, yet they always come back to haunt her, and not only her but others around her.   It seems as though the more Sethe tries to repress her memories and the affects of her trauma, the harder it comes back. The most clear example is Beloved, first she haunts as the baby ghost and later she shows up as a real life form. Another example of this is Paul D coming back and living with them, Paul D is a symbol of Sweet Home and the past for Sethe. Not only that, but he has his own stories to tell which interrupt Sethe's understanding of all she tried to forget. Finally we have Denver who most likely reminds Sethe of everything that happened everyday. For example after she escapes Sweet-Home, she tries to forget the tragic stuff that happened to her while she was there. And even though Denver was...