Fun Home Analysis

An additional objection that I had for this book was that in some parts, it failed to narrow in on where the setting was. At some points, it would simply state an island, or maybe just a city name. As readers, we cannot be expected to know where these places are or what country they are in. As an author, she should have clarified these details better.

If the story were to be told chronologically, it would not have the novel like feeling of the book and many of the readers would not have been as intrigued to the story.

To open up to her major points, the author starts with introducing the main topic in a dramatic way. She begins with not naming what exactly she is talking about as well as sizing it up to have a negative connotation such as

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

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is an autobiography written by Alison Bechdel. The graphic novel takes its readers through Alison Bechdel’s childhood using engaging diction and detailed drawings. One of the big themes of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is the discovery of one’s sexual orientation. Over the course of her life, Alison Bechdel eventually comes to the realization that she is a lesbian. Ultimately, Alison Bechdel uses this novel to recount her experience of events that helped to shape her personal identity, which resulted in a transformation of the way she sees herself. In the end, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is a wonderful narrative that shows its readers the complexity of personal identity, and how things like love, the values of

The way Bechdel decides to depict the characters through her art is a major factor in how the characters are developed, and can be a major factor in how the story is perceived. At a first glance, the depiction of Bechdel’s persona, Alison, in “Are You My Mother?” appears to have very masculine features. An uninformed reader may at first assume that the story is about a man. However, through the dialogue and narration it is quickly revealed that the drawings are depictive of a homosexual woman. Bechdel’s portrayal of herself in the graphics as having very masculine features says a lot about her self-perception. She creates her own persona, so the character seen in the cartoons is Bechdel in her own image and likeness. Clearly, Bechdel illustrated her comic so that the character bared a strong resemblance to her own self-image. Later on in the story, starting on page 83, Alison is depicted wearing glasses and she bears a much stronger resemblance to actual pictures of Bechdel. In several scenes throughout the story, including the opening scene, Bechdel has dreams of herself as a child. These scenes showed a young Alison, dressed in what would widely be considered boys clothing (Bechdel 73). The illustrations as a whole are very sexually ambiguous. This may be perceived as an allusion to Bechdel’s struggles with her own sexuality. However, the refrences to Bechdel’s struggles go beyond the art.

Do you think your book would be as successful if it wasn’t a graphic novel, instead of a novel? I think it’s more powerful when you do it visually because. if I had to describe the character of the Cousin Chin-Kee to you in text, I don't think it would have the same kind of emotional impact as seeing him in a picture.

In Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, the author enlightens us with her struggles in determining her gender identity and sexuality. She does this in a very unique fashion. Alison, throughout the novel, uses specific pieces of literature and writing in order for the reader to decipher her true emotions and feelings toward her sexuality. On top of that, Bechdel writes her story in order to show how these objects play a much deeper role between not only comprehending her sexuality, but her understanding of her choppy relationship with her father. The end result is a series of connections that bring the two closer together than they ever were.

Fun Home and Sex Criminals both explore sexuality and identity in different ways throughout the books. With Sex Criminals, the use of colour to represent different means and the passing of time in the book was very key to the story. In both books there was a struggle with their sexual identity where the main characters are trying to figure out who they really are. Both books do this differently. In fun Home it is a struggle for a father and daughter, while in Sex Criminals it is two individuals that share the same power but have to figure it out by themselves in the beginning.

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.

Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, documents the author's discovery of her own and her father's homosexuality. The book touches upon many themes, including, but not limited to, the following: sexual orientation, family relationships, and suicide. Unlike most autobiographical works, Bechdel uses the comics graphic medium to tell her story. By close-reading or carefully analyzing pages fourteen through seventeen in Fun Home one can get a better understanding of how a Bechdel employs words and graphic devices to render specific events. One can also see how the specific content of the pages thematically connects to the book as a whole. As we will see, this portion of the book echoes the strained relationship

In the beginning of the novel we see a difference of opinion between Bechdel and her dad wherein, Bechdel wants to dress up her own way whereas her dad wants her accessories to match her dress. This shows the importance of physical appearance in the society. Throughout the story we see that Bechdel quarrels a lot with her family in regard to her dress code. Her family seems to be always telling her to wear appropriate clothes according to her gender. Bechdel seems to be annoyed with this. She states, “Wearing a black dress my father had wrestled me into, I appear to be in mourning” (35). This clearly shows how opposed she is to the way her father had forced her to dress up. She is a young child who is unaware of how gender appearances decide the character of a person. Bechdel doesn’t care about what the society thinks about her. For her dressing up the way she wants to is most important. Another instance is when her dad forces her to

The structure of the novel, Homegoing, is very distinct and unique. I believe the way Yaa Gyasi decided to structure her book made the novel and each individual story within the novel more profound. Most books we read today usually follow the main character or possibly a few characters. I cannot remember the last time I read a book where each individual chapter contained a new story from a new character. Homegoing is set apart from other novels due to the dramatic effect the generational stories have on the readers. Not only does the structure of the novel grab readers attention, it makes a distinction between the two lines of families, it also shows us what is similar between the two families, and it connects the past to the present.

Fun Home is a retelling of Alison Bechdel’s life through the lens of her relationship with her father. However, because of what she considers to have been his suicide, Alison is left with an incomplete picture of who he was in life. By calling Fun Home an autobiography, Bechdel enters an autobiographical pact with the reader that ensures that what Bechdel is telling us is the truth. However, elements out of her control leave Bechdel unable to provide certain objective facts necessary to her narrative. As an attempt to remedy these absences and in turn maintain the validity of her story, Bechdel uses intertextuality to fill in the gaps of in her retelling. By overlaying masterplots of fictional narratives over her own, the reader is able to get at an understanding of the kind of person Alison’s father was. In this way Bechdel is able to reveal things about her father that she can 't prove to be true, but are reflective enough of his life to become true.

Literature, no matter what the topic of form it comes in, has the ability to raise issues, spark thought/imagination, and/or draw out emotions that have been buried deep within us as people. It is expected, from the authors, that readers will form opinions and criticisms for their works. Be it that the readers’ emotions parallel those of the writer or differ; some thoughts and opinions are expected.