In Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home" we traverse the life of a thirty year old woman named Alison in the wake of her father's death. Alison's childhood was very abnormal compared to other children and she hated it. Her father was very meticulous when it came to constructing the interior and exterior of their almost fully restored Gothic house. Alison and her two younger brothers would spend their days polishing furniture and making sure the over all aesthetic of their environment was in an almost perfect order. " i began to resent the way my father treated his furniture like children and his children like furniture" Her father is the image of a perfect husband and father, but this is just that. Alison proclaims that the appearance that they are a normal family are "lies" and we can see this throughout the chapters with the outing of Alison's parent's history together, her father being very forceful and short-tempered, as well as the fact that he was gay. I fell as though he felt too afraid he would get crucified for being gay he hid and married a woman and felt as if he had no control over the matter , which is where the habits of controlling things, the house and even down to what the rest of the family wears, comes onto play because that is something within his power he can change. We also see Alison come into her sexuality as a lesbian, and see her question if her fathers supposed suicide was because of her coming out.
1.) What is your opinion of Alison's father? Is he a sympathetic character?
2.) Do you think he was a good father in terms of the children?
3)Why do you think he obsessively composes things, clothes/the house/his family?
Sebastian
ReplyDeleteI felt he composed things so much due to him self consciously not organizing his life the way he wanted. I think him serving in the army also helped modify his cleanliness he must do. The thought of him having his kids help him clean had me thinking he was going to prep their home up first then sell it for something better, but later it turned it seeming as if he kept everything clean and presten the way he wanted maybe because he felt he deserved it or deserved a better lifestyle. I believe he wanted to go back to Europe but, only because their life's looked as of they were better there.
In terms of his children, I think that he was very emotionally distant. His random bursts of kindness seemed far and few between, and he ran his household more like a military commander than a father and husband. I still can't decide whether or not his death was really suicide. The situation seems accidental enough; hit by a truck, but then again he was going through major negative changes in his life with his wife leaving him. At the same time, I feel that he would have arranged his death just as he did furniture, neat and orderly with nothing out of place. Suicide by truck seemed very much out of his control, but then again, maybe that was just a reflection of what his life looked like at the time. Either way, I'm still conflicted.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think he was very consistent. Which is human but his motives seem to always benefit himself. the aesthetic obsession seems like a repression of identity rather than letting the kids be kids and figure themselves out. His actions seem very passive. Even his death he might have been spur of moment but a chance to have the last bit of control over himself.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion of Alison’s father sways throughout the book. I actually sympathized with him a little more because I felt like he was very stuck within himself, but some of the most precious moments between Alison is when they are talking about Literature-something they are both deeply interested in. In his position, I think he was good to them. Yeah, he could have been around more often, and he could have been more enjoyable to be around, but the children probably didn't understand what position he was coming from. With his obsessions, I think he does those things because he feels like that is the only thing he can really control.
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