Fun Home by Alison Bechdel Essay Example
Jessica Gala
Prof. Gaytan
English 101 H
8 April 2010
Bechdel Family
An ideal family is the one that sacrifices willingly for each other, even to suffer for one another. But a family in the most general terms does not necessarily have to meet that requirement. “Friends come and go, but family is forever” is a heartwarming adage of a loving supportive family yet another saying, “You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family” may illustrate a more common reality. Alison Bechdel's comic-memoir Fun Home analyzes family coalescing in the belief that family whether good or bad is stuck with you for life simply because they are family and they are you and to deny them is to live a half life.
On page 118 on Fun Home Bechdel explores a scene where Alison and her father Bruce witness a mannish-woman entering the luncheonette they've stopped at on a business trip. In the first frame, Bruce and Alison are both curiously peering at the truck driver. Alison's face is full of wonder and identification yet her father also recognizes the woman in a similar way. Bruce, firstly, identifies this woman as being like him in certain ways. Secondly, he recognizes that what he views in this woman he sees in his own daughter, not only because this woman, but because what he sees in his daughter he knows in himself as well, “I recognized her with a surge of joy. Dad recognized her too”(118). In the second frame on 118 Bruce's prompting question, “Is that what you want to look like?' is pleading, seeking out confirmation of his daughter homosexuality so that it may qualify his own.
In many families, the individual feels alone,isolated, and misunderstood from the rest of the household; the characteristics that define individuality arise from our families however, therefore we are never really alone. Some trace of personality paces from generation to generation. Comments like, “He's a born leader” or “She has her father's temper” seem like just phrases but the
Prof. Gaytan
English 101 H
8 April 2010
Bechdel Family
An ideal family is the one that sacrifices willingly for each other, even to suffer for one another. But a family in the most general terms does not necessarily have to meet that requirement. “Friends come and go, but family is forever” is a heartwarming adage of a loving supportive family yet another saying, “You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family” may illustrate a more common reality. Alison Bechdel's comic-memoir Fun Home analyzes family coalescing in the belief that family whether good or bad is stuck with you for life simply because they are family and they are you and to deny them is to live a half life.
On page 118 on Fun Home Bechdel explores a scene where Alison and her father Bruce witness a mannish-woman entering the luncheonette they've stopped at on a business trip. In the first frame, Bruce and Alison are both curiously peering at the truck driver. Alison's face is full of wonder and identification yet her father also recognizes the woman in a similar way. Bruce, firstly, identifies this woman as being like him in certain ways. Secondly, he recognizes that what he views in this woman he sees in his own daughter, not only because this woman, but because what he sees in his daughter he knows in himself as well, “I recognized her with a surge of joy. Dad recognized her too”(118). In the second frame on 118 Bruce's prompting question, “Is that what you want to look like?' is pleading, seeking out confirmation of his daughter homosexuality so that it may qualify his own.
In many families, the individual feels alone,isolated, and misunderstood from the rest of the household; the characteristics that define individuality arise from our families however, therefore we are never really alone. Some trace of personality paces from generation to generation. Comments like, “He's a born leader” or “She has her father's temper” seem like just phrases but the