Book Review Of Fun Home: A FAMILY Tragicomic

Can you predict if it was the last day of your childhood and freedom? Lucia and her family couldn 't. Lucy Lipiner’s haunting memoir “Long Journey Home” documents when Nazis invade their homeland and forced them to flee away and find shelter. With limited options on where to go, their family stays together throughout the strenuous journey to find safety throughout Europe to America. This memoir tells in detail the mental and physical struggle to get to safety and freedom. Even when tumultuous events occur, you still have a chance to become resilient no matter what circumstances. To illustrate this theme, Lucy Lipiner uses extensive imagery.

Picking up the book Fun Home, one would imagine that the novel would embellish some sort of comical life story of a misunderstood teenager. Although the short comic-book structured novel does have its sarcastic humor, Alison Bechdel explains her firsthand account of growing up with the difficulty of living of finding her true identity. Alison was a teenager in college when she discovered that she was a lesbian, however, the shock came when she also discovered her father was homosexual. I feel that the most influencing panel in Fun Home is where Alison and her father are in the car alone together. Not only does this panel explain the entirety of the novel in a few short speech bubbles, but it is the defining scene that connects

On the surface, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home seems simply to be a memoir of her journey towards discovering her own identity, and in the process, uncovering her father’s. However, the novel is far more complex. The graphic novel is not linear in the least, and mimics memory as it moves backwards and forwards in time, or returns to specific situations repeatedly. This is layered with the numerous references to previous literary texts in an interesting manner; combined, it provides emotional and informative layers to the novel. Bechdel starts to especially question binaries and pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a female and male in a relatively patriarchal society with no middle ground around the rules; as the novel shows, this affects not only Bechdel’s own pursuit towards her identity but has a significant, and ultimately fatal, impact on her father, Bruce.

In the short story “Birthday Party”, Katharine Brush paints the tale of a husband’s birthday surprise from his wife and its unexpected outcome. Through dinner and dessert, Brush explores how quickly life can change from celebration to tragedy. Through the use of literary devices such as point of view and irony, “Birthday Party” conveys that life is not always what it seems and does not always turn out as planned.

I have one memory from my childhood that is very vivid, most likely because I was seen on Americas Funniest Home Videos. It all started when my brother had an idea, at the time it seemed very fun and harmless. The idea was to make a skate video of him, but like always I wanted to be just like him so I wanted in on this video as well. Little did I know I was going to end the day in the emergency room, in tears, with an ice pack and twelve stitches, and later find myself on national television.

Part graphic memoir and part psychoanalytical study, Alison Bechdel’s, Fun Home, is a charming story about a girl’s search for identity within an unconventional family. The novel style autobiography frames Alison’s childhood and adolescence as she struggles with themes of sexual confusion, gender identity, and convoluted family dynamics. These ideas are explored through the examination of Alison’s relationship with her father, and their shared passion for literature.

The musical adaptation of Fun Home introduces a new element to the original story; Alison’s present self is no longer just a footnote to the text, but instead they brought her to life as an omnipresent observer of these memories transforming her into a character of her own story. Her presence in every scene of the stage adaptation is a visual replication of the authorial presence readers discern throughout the graphic novel. Similarities of the two “characters” are present from beginning to end, even if not always blatantly identical. In her text Bechdel writes, “I was Spartan to my father’s Athenian. / Modern to his Victorian. / Butch to his Nelly. / Utilitarian to his aesthete” (Bechdel 15); similarly, in Fun Home: The Musical, Bechdel’s character

In the book Fun Home Bechdel use memoir to explain her parents creativity and compared her life to her mother and father. Talents such as turning old things into new things. For example in chapter 1 page 6 her father would take old furniture and restore it back to brand new. Her father was an English teacher as well, he had a library stored in their home with books he loved to read. Alison mother would go around the house studying and reciting her lines like the actress she was, and whenever she had a show she would invite the family. Alison as a young girl a young girl would look at her and her parent’s life,

Alison Bechdel’s memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006) is an unconventional graphic memoir, tracing the trajectory of her vexed relationship with her father, both before and after his death. On the other hand, Adrienne Rich’s poem Diving into the Wreck (1972) is about a diver who goes deep in the ocean to explore a broken wreck. The wreck is an extended metaphor for trying to discover the realities of history, not the male version that has forged a sexist society, where men are more powerful than women. Rich dives into the wreck to see the realities of history and aspires to fix the male created version of history, yearning change, while Bechdel searches for her identity, ultimately finding it as she becomes older, sharing similarities and differences through their searches.

There Tessa Towersum is, standing in the doorway looking at her mom who is drunk. Tessa was still and the room was dark and gloomy. Her mother, Nancy Towersum was naked and had puke all over her.

FC met with family. Gabriella was in the home chasing the family's cats. Gabriella said "cat," "couch," and cat running." Gabriella ran and offered the two cats different toys. Gabriella noticed the FC's bag and questioned the contents, such as "what's that." Gabriella began to play with the family's ball and brought her own toys in the living room. Once the FC began the ELAP with Gabby's brother, Gabriella often yelled and attempted to take the toys from Mason. Christina often redirected Gabriella's behavior, but Gabriella was consistently became upset. FC offered Gabriella a puzzle, in which she needed assistance in completing. Gabriella's had often gotten frustrated in the process and returned to wanting toys Mason played with. Christina

One of the main themes in The Joy Luck Club, is the relationship between mother and daughter, because the entire story revolves around the sacrifices made by mothers for their daughters, even going so far as to sacrificing a literal piece of them selves to give their mother a small boost of time in life. In this essay I will be conveying the theme of mother daughter relationships through real world and literature comparing.

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The Manderscied’s were both brought up in very similar homes, and both families are very prominent in the area. Since they were children a reverence of God, forgiveness, hard work, and lasting determination were the major building blocks they had for the foundation of their marriage. Though life was not always picture perfect for this couple, they have faced the odds together for forty- three years. They have lived in the same town since they were children, and have been in the same home since their marriage. Together they have three children one biologically, and two that are adopted. The fierce storms that have tried to drag them apart have only brought them closer. The love story of the Manderscied’s is one that hardly anyone truly gets to see, because they are so private. Yet, through all of the rough times they have managed to stay together and have a deeper love then they did the first moment they met in grade school.

In today’s society, many diversified families are possible, and the different family styles in these three writings agreed with this. Despite the variety of context between them, being Nazi Germany, classical Italy, or an Indian jungle, the theme of family brought together the characters under one commonality, and was a theme that anyone under the foundation of humanity can relate