Although she mocks the contrived symbolistic interpretations of literary works on page 200, this must be considered facetiousness, as she engrosses her work with such symbols. She gives characters Freudian motifs such as the phallus for her father Bruce and the vagina for Alison herself.
Perhaps the phallic imagery in her portrayal of Bruce is the most obvious. The first such image is on page 7, where he is portrayed carrying a column (phallic) over a silhouette of the house. This represents his struggle of carrying his homosexuality within the house. On his face, one can detect feelings of sorrow and bitterness from his struggle. Another example is on page 30, where his grave marker is revealed to be a giant obelisk. This image is described as his favorite shape. Another image containing this imagery is on page 189. In it, Bruce is standing in New York City next to Alison. Next to his head is the Empire State Building which acts as a phallic image.
Alison's image is the vagina. On page 137 this is shown in the middle right image. On the surface she is simply putting two shoes together, but on closer inspection it becomes clear that between the two shoes is a vagina. Her hands are holding on as her thumbs extend inwards. Additionally, vaginal imagery related to Alison can be seen on page 18. On the table lies a vase that is obviously in the shape of a vagina, but there are no flowers with their long stems penetrating inside. Alison is accused of messing with it, and is punished.
Fun Home is full of sexual imagery for the person courageous to look for them. Primarily, he used vaginal images for Alison and phallic images for Bruce.
Stephen, I am really happy you posted this; I did not see a lot of the images, saturated in meaning, you have reflected upon. The image of Alison's father on page 7 lingers in my mind. There are those who may argue you are drawing connections where there are none. And this is a good thing. An argument produces wisdom; agreement induces conformity.
ReplyDeleteStephen I both agree and disagree with your post. I can see a lot of these images and understand your analysis of them. However I think that some of them may be a stretch and that you are limiting the characters as well. Can one find also vaginal images for Bruce? The book is never utterly clear on his sexual orientation, and he did have three children.
ReplyDeletei think she went a little to far when she added the drawing of the two girls hooking up.. all she had to do was say it.. we get the picture Bechdel
ReplyDeleteI chuckled when I read your blog, Stephen. Right now it does feel as though you are drawing connections where there are none--especially with the Alison/Vagina connection; that's because you've only given us two examples which given a book of this size isn't yet enough to convince me. That said, I did think your interpretation on the vase and shoes was quite clever.
ReplyDeleteI personally wouldn't choose the word phallic considering I'm probably not as mature as you, but anyway I appreciate your imagery finds throughout the book and it was great to hear a new set of ideas that we hadn't discussed in classes prior.
ReplyDeleteI agree that some of the imagery is purposefully meant to be subliminally sexual, but some of the imagery that you pulled from the novel might have actually been accidental. I think you are finding 'phallic' imagery where it is innocent and unintentional at some points.
ReplyDeleteYOUA SAID: I agree with all the way about how she "hates" literature, she uses the characters from those novels to fullfil her graphic novel.
ReplyDeleteTATY SAID: Honestly, when I first read this I was thinking in my head “come on”. I thought you reached a little to far to see what was not there. I think your analysis was impressive for seeing vagina images where I would not have looked twice at though.
ReplyDeleteI can see where you find the imagery, but I also think you might be reaching too far.
ReplyDeleteI really never noticed the sexual imagery like the shoe thing. It almost reminds me of the first versions of some of the Disney movies and how there's sexual imagery all throughout that most people wouldn't catch at first.
ReplyDeleteThe images in the novel went to far at some points. I felt uncomfortable reading some of the story.
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