Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - Essay Example

English 6 December, Fun Home (by Alison Bechdel) It is necessary to take into consideration the fact that Fun Home:A Family Tragicomic written by Alison Bechdel is a sample of book where the author manages to make both story and its format attract the reader’s attention at once. It is a graphic memoir that touches upon a lot of important topics. Being a pioneer of this genre, Alison Bechdel opened the floor for numerous discussions around her work. There are various points of view upon the writing under consideration, but this only proves that the story deserves attention due to its unusual form and novelty. The author managed to achieve several important purposes in the process of creating this graphic. Firstly, she gave the birth to the new style. Secondly, she discussed some significant themes in the story. Thirdly, Bechdel appealed to the reader’s imagination and gave him/her an opportunity not only to read, but think over the meaning of the pictures as well. Although some critics are sure that there is nothing valuable in Fun Home (not by chance a public library in Missuri removed this graphic from its shelves for several months when local authorities objected to its contents), the book attracts attention due to its new interesting form and inimitable content. These are the major strong points of the work that make it valuable for the readers. It is impossible to avoid the fact that Alison Bechdel discussed several important themes in her work. They make the story interesting and are still relevant to the contemporary readers. These are the following topics: 1) sexual orientation, 2) gender identity, 3) the theme of death and 4) family relations. All of these themes add deep meaning to the graphic memoir. Sexual orientation seems to be the biggest theme covered by the author. Thus, Bechdel gives the readers the information about her search for her own sexuality. This is an inherited feature of the protagonist, because the girl’s father demonstrates some homosexual behaviors. This topic is rather relevant to the contemporary society, because sexual orientation seems to be an important problem in the world. There are people who are willing to have same-sex marriages and the majority of them are sure that it is just the manifestation of democracy; it is normal for them. The protagonist of the book under analysis is in constant search of her gender identity. She does this throughout the book and arrives at the following conclusion: “remarkably, this interview with Mr. Avery occurred on the selfsame afternoon that I realized, in the campus bookstore, that I was a lesbian” (Bechdel, 203). The themes of gender identity and sexual orientation are closely connected with the one of the family relations. The environment in the family influences the girl greatly. She sees that her father is a gay and she also lacks his attention. Perhaps, the searches for sexual identity were like some sort of entertainment for the protagonist; she tried to fill somehow the time that she would like to spend together with her father. The latter is very cold and is busy with the restoration of the house. The title of the story symbolizes Bruce Bechdel’s tyrannical domestic rule. The father’s behavior is supported by numerous quotations from the book. For instance, on the pages of Fun Home the reader finds out that “dad is a lowering, malevolent presence. His arrival home from work cast a cold pall on the peaceable kingdom where mom, Christian and I [the protagonist] spent our days” (Bechdel, 197). The theme of death appears when the protagonist begins to think over the details of her father’s death. It is unclear if it was a suicide or not. The truth is not presented by the author and the girl thinks that her father killed himself because of divorce. So, it should be noted that all the four above-mentioned topics are interesting and valuable for the contemporary reader. They appeal to his/her mind and make search the answers to the questions hidden between the lines of Fun Home. However, not only interesting and relevant topics contribute to the popularity of the book. It is also a specific language applied by Alison Bechdel. For instance, according to Sean Wilsey’s words Fun Home “is a comic book for lovers of words. Bechdel’s rich language and precise images combine to create a lush piece of work – a memoir where concision and detail are melded for maximum, obsessive density. We can read Fun Home in a sitting, or get lost in the pictures within the pictures on its pages” (Wilsey). It is impossible to disagree with this point of view as the story is written so that one feels absorbed by it in the process of reading. This is possible only due to the author’s gift and perfect writing skills. It is necessary to stress that a graphic novel or memoir cannot be evaluated in the same way as literature or popular fiction/non-fiction. It is more interesting and does not have the same form as a traditional novel. Everything is written in comic book form (Rothschild, 187). This gives the reader an opportunity to enjoy both reading and watching the pictures with the characters’ actions. This never occurs when one is reading a traditional novel. So, Fun Home presents the readers a new way to get more information about the characters. If it is necessary to imagine their appearance themselves in popular fiction, in graphic novel the audience may see the author’s variants and compare them with the ones it has. There are also critics who call Fun Home by Alison Bechdel sheepish. For instance, Andrew Seal states that “Bechdel often seems sheepish when her family’s story takes on the shape of larger narratives – some from history or the news, like Watergat or Stonewall, but more from literature – Fitzgerald, Joyce, James, Proust, Wilde” (Seal). This critic also is sure that the images applied by the author to create a graphic novel are not necessary as in this case the reader is not encouraged to imagine vastly deeper worlds inside the panels. From my perspective, it is not so. The author does not sound sheepish; she really touches upon several important topics in her writing and does this perfectly. It is also impossible to imagine Fun Home without the pictures that make the process of reading so interesting and involving. These two points make me completely disagree with Andrew Steal and stress that the graphic memoire under consideration is ideal to read. The book is written so that it is easy to read it and get closer to the characters through looking at the pictures (Reese). It seems that the reader is present in the story; he/she feels as if being familiar with Bechdel’s family. This feeling never occurs in the process of reading a traditional book. That is why Fun Home by Alison Bechdel gives an opportunity to get a new reading experience that can be never forgotten. The pictures and the text seem to be inseparable from each other and produce a splendid content to admire. One more thing that makes the book written by Alison Bechdel memorable and attractive is the mystery that appears when the protagonist begins to think over the way her father died. Alison finds no answer to the question that bothers her. The same happens to the reader. He/she is given an opportunity to find his own version of the character’s death. Such a ruse applied by the author is a good way to keep the reader’s attention to the plot of the story and make him/her turn over the pages one by one. The reader tries to find out the reason for Bruce Bechdel’s death together with his daughter who suggests a lot of different variants. One of them is the following one: “The idea that I caused his death by telling my parents that I was a lesbian is perhaps illogical” (Bechdel, 84). Sometimes the protagonist’s attempts to find out the truth remind of Sherlock Holmes’s investigations. The girl considers all the possible reasons of her father’s death thoroughly, but does not find the best variant, unlike the famous Sherlock Holmes and his companion Watson (Hamilton, 112). It is interesting to follow the protagonist’s attempts to understand the truth about her father’s death and understand her own family better. To achieve the second purpose Alison reads a lot and tries to find the information she needs in the books. The girl discovers familiarity in the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. She studies the following texts: The Taming of the Shrew, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Portrait of a Lady, The Wind in the Willows, A Happy Death, In Search of Lost Time and others. This make the reader wonder the way the protagonist behaves. She is able to work with information and analyze everything that goes on around her. It is a rare characteristic for a young person. So, the book is valuable due to the numerous positive features belonging to the protagonist as well. It is interesting to follow her actions and thoughts. Moreover, the reader may learn a lot of things with the help of protagonist. He/she may even start looking at the world around in a different way. The book teaches to be more attentive, love and respect all the members of the family and be able to think independently. These things are very important and should be possessed by every person who wants to become successful in life. The protagonist of the book is intelligent and teaches the reader her intelligence. This characteristic is also the result of father’s attitude and his behavior at home. To conclude, it is necessary to stress that Alison Bechdel’s book is remarkable and memorable because of several reasons: 1. It is a sample of well-written graphic memoire. 2. It touches upon several topics that are relevant to the contemporary society. 3. It is didactic as shows the consequences of then problems in the family. 4. It is perfect in style. 5. It contains some mystery. 6. It is written so that the reader feels absorbed in the story. 7. It teaches to be attentive to the world around us and analyze everything that is going on. Although there are various points of view upon Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, this book is valuable from my perspective. The way the author writes makes the process of reading turn into a marvelous journey. It should be noted that both form and content of the story deserve much attention and contribute to the topicality of the book. They make the writing unique. Moreover, the reader may learn more about Alison Bechdel because she describes true events from her early life. So, all above-mentioned information proves that Fun home is worth reading and rereading due to its specific language and interesting content. Works Cited Bechdel, Alison. Fan Home: A Family Tragic Comic. New York, NY: First Mariner Books Edition, 2007. Print. Hamilton, John. Graphic Novels. US: ABDO Publishing Company, 2009. Print. Seal, Andrew. “Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel”. Blographia-literaria.com. 21 December, 2008. Reese, Jennifer. “Fun Home. Alison Bechdel”. Ew.com. 31 May, 2006. Web. 8 June, 2006. Rothschild, Aviva. Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-length Comics. US: Libraries Unlimited, 1995. Print. Wilsey, Sean. “Fun Home: A Family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel”. Nytimes. Com. 18 June 2006. Read More