While reading Fun home a lot of questions went through my head. the main one being that why isn't the mother and brothers rarely brought up in the novel and why would you stay with someone you don't love or have any attraction to?
If you looked closely to the pictures through out the book you will notice how her mother is always in the background or off to the side. I think Bechdel does this to show and give us an understanding on the difference between Alison's and her father's relationship and Alison and her mothers. One picture that really shows and expresses their relationship in the same setting is on page 230. This is when Alison is being pulled though the water by her father and meanwhile Alison's mother is in the background, outside of the pool reading with sun glasses on.
When thinking about Alison's three brothers and why their opinion to anything was not added to the text really confused me. for example on page 52, in the picture of the three brothers standing by their dads coffin with no facial expression, there was no emotion portrayed. why is this? I want to know why her brothers opinions were not even stated in the novel, they just stood there looking lost or confused.
In addition, during the reading of Fun Home I learn more and more about how Alison's father is gay and does not show any love or affection to his wife. I feel Alison's mom is always the odd one out when it is compared to Alison and her fathers relationship, it is always Alison and her father together doing things. It also only shows Alison and her dads perspective and outlook on all the situations.
I don't think the opinions of Alison's mother and brothers are highly relevant to the story of Alison's relationship with her father. While I do ponder their thoughts, I think their presence would dilute rather than enrich the story; their omission creates a higher sense of intimacy and saturation of emotion between Alison and her father.
ReplyDeleteBechdel has said that she's continuing to write memoirs. I wonder if the perspectives of other members of her family will appear in her upcoming work. While I agree that there is a bit of a vacuum surrounding the brothers especially, I do read the book as primarily Bechdel's reflection on her relationship to her father.
ReplyDeleteI had the same questions Troy. I also believe that the siblings' and mother's opinions would help the story, and in order for the attention to remain on Alison, she could include her reactions to her family members' opinions.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Alison kept her brothers and mother out of the story mostly because it was about her father's death/suicide in relation to herself.
ReplyDeleteYOUA SAID: Even though we did have a class disscussion about her brother's, I think that the reason why her brother's opinion were not stated in the graphic novel is because they didn'ty add in her life like how here mother and father added into her's. It's like writing a novel about yourself and something that has a bigger picture than their thoughts, like they were just another character in her book that has no say in it.
ReplyDeleteTATY SAID: I agree with you. I wish that we could know more about the mothers and brothers. I do think that Peter has a point about it diluting her story about her and her fathers relationship.
ReplyDeleteI think that one of the reasons why Bechdel did not include the mothers and brothers in the story is that they were not as conducive to the plots and motifs in the novel. I think Bechdel meant to simply analyze the life of her father and herself more than that of the rest of the family. It is, however, possible to argue that the perspectives of the other two would have been helpful in reading the novel.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed to me that her brothers and mother weren't particularly open about their feelings. Additionally, I don't think it would have added much to the story, given that the story is about Alison and her father.
ReplyDeleteI never noticed how her mother was weaved throughout the book because I mostly focused on Alison's relationship with Bruce.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the family didn't have major roles in the story because the book was on her father.
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