Relationships (Fun Home)
I enjoyed Allison’s Character very much. It makes the book all ha more real and understandable. I enjoyed how she used her emotion to make personal connections with her current problems. Such as the OCD that she established at a young age. I felt that it was comical yet true to the character making her all the more real in my eyes as a reader as well as interesting. At one point I began to sympathize for her because of the disconnection between her and family. They were so secluded except for when it was dinner time.
The author made sure that she stressed the fact that, the father wanted the house to appear as if it was a traditional. Although the family held great secrets that was so dreadful to society eyes that it scorned them as individuals and a whole. Therefore the father stressed because he didn't want anybody to think of him in a negative way, the mother stressed because she had to be the backbone of the household and with hold through all the fighting and arguments that occurred between the father and her. And last but not least the daughter stressed because she couldn't find her true self.
Although each of these characters suffered from some since of freedom they seemed to each gain this freedom back towards the end of the book. The mother, through finally having the release of her husband who has now passed and being able to confide in the daughter as she grew older. The mother also, vented through her historical plays that she performed, almost as if she was yearning for that attention. May it be through the play she was performing or the audience who acquired it and her family who obtained it. Her acting as if nobody should ask her questions about her performance only showed a greater repressed emotion for more freedom and attention.
The Father gained his sense of freedom I believe twice in the book. His first encounter with freedom, I would say, would have to be when the daughter finally spoke up about her sexuality. This moment was pivotal for their relationship because they finally understood one another. Just like when the mother found Allison to confide in, the father did as well. Although the situations might not have been as clear as the mother daughter relationship, due to awkwardness, they still confided in one another. His second sense of freedom would have to be his death. Weather planned, assumed, or accidental, his death truly set him free from the twisted/secret bearing life.
The daughter's freedom I would say would kind of coincide with the fathers somewhat. Her sense of freedom came from the death of the father and when she revealed her true self/sexuality. Although her father’s death made her upset for a while, when he finally thought it through she realized why her father had left and came to an understanding of the harshness of his life and what correlated in hers. When she finally spoke up for herself and announced her sexuality she freedom herself from the unknown and curiosity she had as a child
At points the book did puzzle me on the relationships area. Such as why did the mother continually stay with the father even after she found out his secret? Or did she know his secret at all? Another question that drew to my mind was what was the relationship between the father and the two brothers? Did he ever have or try to have and sexual relations with them. And what were the brother’s true importances in the book? I ask this last question because every author includes particular characters at certain points in the book to specify an importance of a particular moment. So what was Bechdel's importance of her two brothers besides the fact that the book was a memoire? I wish I had enough time to analyze this book in greater detail because a lot occurred through underlying messages that I still do not understand....
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