An Assessment of Alison Bechdels Comic Drama Are You My Mother - Essay Example

? Alison Bechdel Executive Summary or The report is an assessment of Alison Bechdel comic “Are you my Mother?” It is a critical analysis report presenting assertions of Alison Bechdel’s comic drama. The objective here is to demonstrate the fictional abstraction of Alison Bechdel which gives a closer view of a person’s unusual life experiences and life situations. On further, the objective is to bring certain findings and conclusion from the abstraction of Alison Bechdel. The areas of focus are Alison Bechdel, her psychoanalysis ideals, fiction, comic, tale and abstraction. Introduction There remains a common perception among people that fiction has nothing to do about life’s reality. It has nothing to do about the truth, originality which lies with a person’s life (Bechdel). The comic of Alison Bechdel “are you my mother?” depicts another story. It tells that fiction do have some connection with a man’s life (Bechdel 1-5). The way the fiction gets formed does hold some colors of life of the person describing it in the fictional sense (Bechdel). Alison Bechdel who has come out as one of the popular comic writers in the cartoon comic industry is a woman of fiction bringing certain connections of her inner self and her life experiences in her abstraction. Bechdel’s writing is a demonstration which tells that fiction is a manifestation of life’s reality. It is the reflection of truth and situations which a person faces in his or her life periods (Bechdel 1-5). This report is going to assess the comic tale of Alison Bechdel, with an aim to find out that how fiction relates to reality (Martin). Themes here to analyze are psychoanalysis, psychodrama, fiction, comic tale and art respectively. Based on the derived thesis statement “fiction is an added color to life” and analyzing “Are you my Mother?” the report will draw certain findings, results and conclusion (Kothari). Method Adapted In cotemporary research studies, there are different methods being adapted to conduct the research. In the field of psychology, art and social sciences several authors have adapted the method of secondary research (Kothari). Secondary research is a research based on secondary sources (books, journals, news articles and periodicals), providing an explorative ground to the researcher to make the research apprehensive. In viewing the contemporary literature in arts and literature, the researcher has adapted thematic secondary research method to analyze the Alison Bechdel’s art comic fiction effectively (Bechdel). This method adapted has made the researcher to explore several secondary sources, providing a closer and critical view on “Are you my Mother?” This method adapted will possibly lead to conclusive findings describing the comic drama in a more comprehensive way (Kothari 95). Results and Discussion The comic drama “Are you my Mother?” of Alison Bechdel opens up with the first chapter of the book in which Bechdel emphasizes on her inner eloquence that she had kept secret throughout her life’s journey (Garner 3-5). This was a book which Bechdel kept on emphasizing- an inner expression that had endured Bechdel from inside and throughout her life period (Luban 1-2). In the opening chapter when Bechdel was in conversation with her analyst, she expressed that her mother has been a looming psychic presence in her mind (Bechdel). She wanted to bring her out by writing a book which describes the story of her mother and the relationship with her as a growing daughter. Bechdel’s mother was like an ordinary mother as the comic drama explains but the relationship she kept with Bechdel was majorly different from her other children (Luban 2-3). The drama explains that when Bechdel was seven years old, her mother stopped kissing her to the good night bed. It was something disappointing for the child and definitely something which made Bechdel disturbed from inside. As “Are you my Mother?” asserts, Bechdel’s mother kept an avoiding and ignoring behavior with her daughter. She never tried to get closer to Bechdel as she was more intimated with her three respective sons. This was the gap that made Bechdel scatter from inside and made her in a tragic life situation (Luban 2-3). On further, the drama brought new discoveries in the story of Alison Bechdel. Bechdel was a lesbian girl as her mother recognized it when Bechdel was in her earlier teenage (Bechdel). This was actually what brought the gap and distance in between the mother and the daughter “Bechdel”. Bechdel first decided to write a book on her father, but as her mother’s story contained more misery to her, she wrote a book on her mother (Bechdel). These were certain twists and turns which the comic “are you my mother?” brought chapter wise, giving a comprehensive fictional experience to the reader (Martin 1-4). It is to be noted that Alison Bechdel described Donald Winnicott to be her ideal- an expert twentieth century psycho analyst who attracted Bechdel with her therapy sessions and dream interpretation. The drama depicts that Winnicott with his fascinating analytical theories has taken the place of Bechdel’s mother in Bechdel’s mind. Actually, Bechdel considered Winnicott as an ideal person- a man that can surely take the place of her mother (Bechdel). Conclusion Alison Bechdel with her fictional thematic craft “Are you my Mother?” wanted to confess about her father. Her emphasis was not actually to write a book about her mother but write a revealing abstraction of her father who was a homosexual. The miseries of Bechdel and her broken bond with her mother made her change the track. She was never in a comfortable position with her mother to tell her about the reality of her father who died with a suicide and contained the instinct of homosexuality. This was the turning point of the story- a tale which Alison Bechdel extended in the fictional sense and with an artistic mesh of reality. The assessment of the graphic novel “Are you my Mother?” tells that fiction does have certain connections and associations with the life’s reality. Fiction is not something from the nowhere, but it is something which is derived from a person’s life experiences. Works Cited Bechdel, Alison. Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print. Garner, Dwight. Artist, Draw Thyself (and Your Mother and Therapist). 2 May 2012. Web. 27 September 2013 . Kothari, C. R. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Delhi: New Age International, 2004. Print. Luban, Rachel. Are You My Mother? – Alison Bechdel. 25 June 2012. Web. 27 September 2013 . Martin, Tim. Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel. 2013. Web. 27 September 2013 . Read More