Fun Home A Family Tragicomic Analysis

Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is an enthralling memoir about a young girl’s peculiar childhood, which involved her family’s funeral business, infatuating vacations, family turmoil, solitude, and her befuddling relationship with her master artificer of a father. Alison lives in Pennsylvania with her mother Helen, father Bruce, and her little brothers Christian and John. Before becoming parents, Bruce and Helen lived in Europe, after the death of Bruce’s father they return to the United States to continue running the family’s funeral business. While Bruce cares meticulously for his Gothic mansion and flowers, he neglects his wife and children. Bruce uses violence to create chaos within everyone’s life, filling the house with a sense of hostility. Adolescent Alison begins …show more content…
Initially, both Bechdals yearned for different genders, imposing expected behaviors upon the other. For example, Bechdel stated, “Not only were we inverts. We were inversions of one another. It was a war of cross purposes, and so doomed to perpetual escalation” (98). Implying that the father and daughter are opposites, these differences would lead to arguments, resentment, and envious behavior. The panels illustrated faces of displeasure towards father and daughter, as they get ready in the same room. The duo-specific occurs as both the images and the words share equivalent portrayal of the scene. As the subject-to-subject panels begin to unravel, Bruce is depicted holding a string of pearls stating, “You need some pearls,” his hands are parallel to Alison’s neck, as if he is eagerly awaiting her acceptance. His bright white shirt and background signifies pure intentions of beautifying his daughter for dinner. In contrast, Alison’s hair is frazzled and her speech balloon encompasses “No Way!” forming a piercing point to indicate the sharpness of her tone. Alison has already compromised, wearing a

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Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Analysis