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Analysis on fun home by alison bechdel
Analysis on fun home by alison bechdel
Alison bechdel fun home analysis
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In her book, Fun Home, Alison Bechdel uses simplistic black and white artwork with a touch of the color blue. The shade she uses is a grayish-blue hue that reminds me of the color duck egg blue. I feel that Bechdel uses this particular shade of blue to coincide with the tone of her personal graphic novel. The color blue is known as a very flexible color choice. It can have a positive calming effect and may be associated with feelings of serenity and spirituality. Blue can also be used to suggest loneliness and sadness and induce a cold, chilling feeling. The latter emotions emphasize the direction that Bechdel was leading her readers to. Bechdel recounts her childhood growing up with a closeted homosexual father and a mother who
As the endless progression of time into the future continues, moments from the past live on with us in the form of memories, and regardless of how vague and fragmented they may be, they are constantly molding our existence; our very individuality. In Jeannette C. Armstrong’s “Blue against White,” the protagonist, Lena, who is a native girl, experiences this phenomena as her memories of the past shape her and allow her to persevere through the struggles of life on the reserve, and in the city. Throughout the story, Armstrong uses symbolism, imagery, and a flashback of Lena’s past to signify the importance of memories. Her idea of the past is mainly represented by the use of the blue door of Lena’s house as a symbol, which creates a comparison
She was harassed at school by malicious and prejudiced boys, and felt isolated by her limited English language abilities. Her discomfort with puberty was exacerbated by an encounter with a perverted American exhibitionist in a car. She dealt with these issues later in life by becoming a psychologist and analyzing her family's myriad mental problem” (Spark Notes Editors, 2002).
In her graphic novel tragicomic, Fun Home, Alison Bechdel considers a broad range of subjects such as her and her father’s homosexuality, her parents’ often-volatile relationship, and the harsh reality that her fondest childhood memories may be a sham. On pages 82 and 83, Bechdel relays a scene that took place shortly after Bruce Bechdel’s funeral. Alison and her girlfriend, Joan, are relaxing at the Bechdel home when Helen offers Joan her choice of one book from Bruce’s prized library. Joan chooses a collection of Wallace Stevens’ poetry, which Helen reads and appears to have a deeper connection to. When Joan redacts her request, Helen insists that she take the book. This scene is microcosmically significant because it symbolizes Helen Bechdel’s
In the picture book don't think about purple elephants, Gwyneth Jones the illustrator uses different artistic qualities to assist with deeper understanding and emotion within the text. She uses elements mentioned in Children illustrations including color, texture and perspective. When Susie is playing throughout the day and on weekends the colors are bright but soft including blue, purple, green and yellow. The text moves forward to mention her anxieties when she goes to bed. The perspective of the illustrator switches from neutral to above her looking down. I see this as the illustrator conveying her emotions making it feel empty and vacant. The colors then stop completely and all the pages explaining her anxiety are only colored in grey. The only color objects are
Throughout Blue Sweater, by Jacqueline especially through chapters 6-16 she talks about a lot of issues and solutions. She has talked about how people, programs and charities don’t help the people in need the properly throughout the book. Later, she ends up going back home in the U.S and going back to school to expand her knowledge and helping people understand hard issues facing the poor while she was working for Rockefeller. She also touches on how the government doesn’t have sufficient program setup to help the poor. Jacqueline also adds on that she doesn’t think that the government should help the poor. Jacqueline started her own charity Acumen that helps people in developing countries. The organization sends resources and invests on entrepreneurs
In Allison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Bruce Bechdel’s home restoration efforts are a recurring theme, and the details of his actions do not go unnoticed by young Allison. He is obsessed with perfection, but cannot break the belief in his daughter’s mind that his actions are not innocent, that there is a darker secret behind his drive. Understanding Bruce’s homosexuality and femininity gives light to the source of his obsession with restoration: Bruce’s laborious restoration both expresses and conceals his culturally unacceptable self-identity.
In the graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel is literally about the past young version of herself and how she had a father who was in the closet even though the people had most likely figured it out since the town is very small and isolated from the larger areas. With the death of her father, things were difficult for her because the town didn’t say how or as to why he actually died. “ The lord moves in mysterious ways.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel shows us her discovery of her own and her father's homosexuality. This graphic memoir touches on things like homosexuality, family relationships, and suicide. What’s unique about this autobiographical story is that Bechtel used the graphic novel medium to tell her story. When we close read pages fourteen through seventeen in Fun Home we can understand how a Bechdel employs words and graphic devices to allow for specific events. One can also see how the specific content of the pages connects to the book entirely. This part of the graphic novel shows the relationship between Bruce Bechdel and his family and his attempts to cover his homosexuality by making an image of an ideal family, these
On page 99 Bechdel shows her and her father’s similar interest in masculine beauty through her captions, “Between us lay a slender demilitarized zone—our shared reverence for masculine beauty,” and “But I wanted the muscles and tweed like my father wanted the velvet and pearls—subjectively, for myself” (pg. 99). Through these captions Bechdel once again illustrates a parallel between her and her father, as they both enjoy masculine beauty. However, they are once again separated by a divide created by the fact that they don’t enjoy it in the same fashion. While her father enjoys masculine beauty in other men, Bechdel wants to enjoy masculine beauty by embracing it as part of who she is. These two quotes also serve to allude to the parallel of both Bechdel and her father’s homosexuality while also implying the difference between how they go about dealing with it. While Bechdel wants to embrace her homosexuality and express herself accordingly, her father strives to impose his feelings of femininity on her instead of acting on them himself. While her father projects onto others, Bechdel acts upon her feelings illustrating once again that both she and her father are similar beings, however they are also separated by a gap created by them not acting in the same
Appearance versus reality played a major role in the relationship between Bechdel and her father. When Bechdel goes to college and realizes that she is a lesbian, she decides to live with her true sexuality. While speaking to her mother about her own sexuality, Bechdel finds out her father is gay and has had many affairs with men. Bechdel is upset that her father never decided to live and accept his reality. Bechdel believes her and her father might be able to find a way to connect around their homosexuality and develop a better relationship. Instead, Bechdel’s father chooses to live behind appearance to hide the truth and be accepted by society. From her father’s appearance, no one ever truly knows the truth about her family and their lives. As a result of Bechdel’s father not coming out, it builds a barrier between him and Alison. Bechdel calls her father an artificer because he has carefully crafted his whole life, which is a complete lie. Her father has been hiding his identity so no one knows it was there. Appearance hinders the possibility of developing a cohesive relationship between Bechdel and her father. Bechdel views the relationship between “artifice” and reality as negative because “artifice” hid the reality the would have allowed herself a better relationship and life with her father. She blames the idea of “artifice” for not allowing her to have a good relationship with her
Ambiguity, defined as “capable of being understood in two or more possible senses or ways” (Merriam Webster), is one of the key elements of modern writing. In fact, Reif Larson, author of I am Radar, says “One thing I think is true about successful storytelling: There’s as much significance in what’s left out as in what’s actually said … This is really a crucial tenet of narration, perhaps the crucial tenet…” (Atlantic). This is most obvious because it forces the reader to read actively and engage with the text. However, beyond this clear usefulness authors and directors use this tool to invoke other reactions in their work, which indeed makes ambiguity’s role in narrative ambiguous itself.
Perhaps, like Icarus, he did not listen to his internal warnings to be true to himself. This artificial identity (family man and heterosexual husband) led to his destruction. She also compares her father to Daedalus when it comes to remodeling and decorating the family home and his disregard for another’s feelings (1626). Bechdel’s writing embodies New Sincerity because of Bechdel’s authentic portrayal of her father. She honestly admits to her father’s failings and her family’s dysfunction. She lived in a home that reminded her of Jimmy Stewart’s fixer upper in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, and she openly admits to her father’s tendency to behave like a half-bull, half-man monster when things did not go the way he wanted (1627). She exposes her family for what they were and did not how they should be. Bechdel writes that “[h]e used his skillful artifice not to make things, but to make things appear…impeccable” (1631). Her family life was far from authentic. Her father was lying about his sexuality and hiding behind the false front of the ideal family. Bechdel’s account her father’s life shows a man who hides
Maggie Nelson is creating a comfort zone inside her walls with the use of the color blue to maintain a sense of power and control over her depression. Nelson
Brooks, Gwendolyn. “The Mother.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Myer. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 1081.
In Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel entitled Fun Home, the author expresses her life in a comical manner where she explains the relationship between her and her family, pointedly her father who acts as a father figure to the family as she undergoes her exhaustive search for sexuality. Furthermore, the story describes the relationship between a daughter and a father with inversed gender roles as sexuality is questioned. Throughout the novel, the author suggests that one’s identity is impacted by their environment because one’s true self is created through the ability of a person to distinguish reality from fictional despotism.