More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis on fun home by alison bechdel
Analysis on fun home by alison bechdel
Essay on fun home by alison bechdel
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Bechdel uses the theme of appearance versus reality to highlight her relationship with her father. Bechdel utilizes her illustrations and short sentences to reveal these things about herself and her father. Bechdel opens her memoir with a chapter entitled “Old Father, Old Artificer”. Bechdel refers to her father, Bruce Bechdel, as an artificer because she sees him as a skilled craftsman. Bechdel describes, “His greatest achievement, arguably, was his monomaniacal restoration of our old house.” (Bechdel 4). Her father restored their old house to make it look like a huge mansion. Bechdel knows that this is just the appearance of their household because it is not an accurate representation of their family life inside the house. Bruce created an appearance that was the opposite of reality to cover up the actual wealth of their family. He hides the fact that his family may not be as wealthy and perfect as they appear to be. In this case, Bruce reveals he believes that appearance is more important than the reality of a situation. Appearance is also important on the inside of the home as well. Bechdel mentions, “Sometimes, when things were going well, I …show more content…
Bechdel decides to live her reality and be her true self. After she reveals this information to her parents, her mother reveals the truth about her father. Bechdel’s father had affairs with many other men throughout his lifetime. Bechdel is shocked and does not understand how her father was able to do that for so long. When Bechdel realizes this, she instantly feels as if now she may be able to connect with her father. Her father was living behind the appearance of the perfect husband and man to hide his actual sexuality of being gay. She feels as if they can connect through their changing sexuality, even though she has decided to come out while her father has
Alison Bechdel uses her graphic memoir, Fun home, to explore her relationship with her father. She uses the book as a tool to reflect on her life and the affect her father had on her. She discovers how her fathers closeted sexuality affected her childhood and her transition into adulthood. His death left a powerful mark and left her searching for answers. She clearly states this when she says, “it’s true that he didn’t kill himself until I was nearly twenty. But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him.” (23). This feeling drove her to look back on their relationship and find what binds her so strongly to a man she never understood.
Bruce, an “Old Father, Old Artificer,” uses his art form as a way of whitewashing his past memories and faults. The exclamation of the woman shows the extent her father has covered up the truth. He has put many unneeded items and decorations in the house, distracting people that visit. Alison likes things functional, while Bruce likes things very elaborate and over the top, not needed. These decorations have made people confused from what is there and what is not.
She focuses on his beliefs that it was imperative to not let his “dark secret” (270) be unveiled to the public’s eyes, even going as far as to create an understanding with his wife to achieve successful concealment. An ache formed for Bechdel as she matured and grew into adulthood. Her father had built a bridge that separated him from his wife and children, only occasionally crossing over to show affection to those who craved it the most. He might have been physically present, however, he was not truly with his family. There were only infrequent bouts of time when he showed affection towards his children.
In her novel, Bechdel’s complex sexual self-development is a powerful struggle for her to figure out and acknowledge her sexual orientation. One can simply observe the pain and struggle Bechdel encountered in his process of self-development especially in one of her monologues when she discusses the impact of finding out about her father’s homosexual ways in his past. She states, “Only four months earlier (to her fathers suicide), I had made an announcement to my parents, ‘I am a lesbian’ but it was a hypothesis so thorough and convincing that I saw no reason not to share it immediately… My homosexuality remained at that point purely theoretical, untested hypothesis” (Bechdel 58). After receiving the news that her father was...
Finally, even though, for a long time, the roles of woman in a relationship have been established to be what I already explained, we see that these two protagonists broke that conception and established new ways of behaving in them. One did it by having an affair with another man and expressing freely her sexuality and the other by breaking free from the prison her marriage represented and discovering her true self. The idea that unites the both is that, in their own way, they defied many beliefs and started a new way of thinking and a new perception of life, love and relationships.
After this event, the reader can really see that deep down, the protagonist loves and cares for his father. As he hears his father enter the house babbling gibberish, he begins getting worried.
Before she knew it, Anna quickly got overtaken by this passion, and it ultimately led to her own demise, as the love that Vronsky had to offer quickly diminished. This became a problematic force since Anna practically gave up everything she owned to chase the life that this man offered her. She did it in such a manner that she could no longer return back to her family or normal lifestyle. In a way, she was victim to a lifeless marriage by which she found herself to pretend to be happy. When Anna finally gets a shot at love, she realizes all that she has missed, and it is easy to see how she falls victim to such an enamored opportunity. Anna simply wanted to know that she mattered, to have been appreciated and admired. Unfortunately, being a
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.
Bechdel’s father was deemed as odd by many onlookers. His hobby of restoring old and damaged items was strange
As a young girl full of doubt and uncertainty, her “Father’s holiness filled her eyes with light”(16). He brightened her outlook on life, as she wasn’t able to see his imperfections at this age. Engraved in Sara’s head is the man whose praises lift her heart when there is little money to live off of, and Sara chooses to see only the selfless actions rather than the selfish ones. When Sara’s father refuses to pay the rent, he hits the collector lady, which Sara sees as “David killing Goliath, the giant,”(26). Sara is is in awe by this action and is thankful to have a selfless father whom stands up for his family. These select moments that she chooses to remember create a false image of him where he is represented as a selfless and caring man. This encourages her to always think of him when she believes she is in trouble or needs help. Sara longs for her father after she refuses to marry Max Goldstein, a man who seemed to be perfect, but only wanted a wife rather than someone to love. She thinks that her “refusal to marry Max Goldstein was something he could understand”(202). Sara always feels like she can go back to her father for help because she convinces herself that he is all knowing and genuinely great. Even though Sara Smolinsky may have left home because she finally realizes the harm her father causes, she always seems to fall back on the reassurance that her father is a hero. This false image
Some parts of the comic memoir are told out of order, with alternating scenes of therapy between her new therapist, Carol, and her previous therapist, Jocelyn. This interspersion of scenes disguises the progression of the relationship between Jocelyn and Bechdel because Carol brings the narrative back to Bechdel’s family situation, specifically the relationship between Bechdel and her parents. The two therapists and their offices are drawn very similarly, but the astute reader may be able to pick out the chronological order of scenes.
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.
Nora and says, “ Never must my little songbird do a thing like that! Little songbirds
After reading “The Doll House” and “Trifles”, the idea of females being inferior to men is portrayed. Both plays, are in a much older time period. But from a feminist view, females are still sometimes given the doubtful role in today’s society. Both plays, are very different, but much alike in the ways the females are treated, never taken seriously, nor are they appreciated.
The Struggle for Identity in A Doll's House A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, is a play that was written ahead of its time. In this play, Ibsen tackles women's rights as a matter of importance. Throughout this time period, it was neglected. A Doll's House was written during the movement of Naturalism, which commonly reflected society. Ibsen acknowledges the fact that in 19th century life the role of the woman was to stay at home, raise the children and attend to her husband.