Sunday, October 5, 2008
Fun home
Allison Bechdel starts off the book with a fond memory of her father. The first page shows her father playing airplane with her only to be interrupted by his obsession of fixing the house. It then goes into how her whole childhood revolved around her fathers fixation on home improvement and gardening. She shows and tells about her father begin a serious man by using both description and the picture of him always with harsh shapes making up his face and bone structure but also the dot for a tightened mouth. On page 22 when he is washing her his face has jagged shapes and she has a rounded body and softer curves witch represents their personality.
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2 comments:
I completely agree with the lines of her body while taking a bath shows her personality. It shows how innocent she is and young...thinking from the beginning I was confused if her father raped young boys not just had concemtual sex with them. But if that scene was earlier and she had been a boy it would have made me wonder if he would do such things to his own children. But anyway your description of lines and facial expressions is exactly what I got out of this novel. The father always being stern faced, and the mother always looking pissed, and the brothers care free, and Bechdel wanting to get out of her own skin and be a boy!
Heh. I know what you mean about the beginning of the book. I think it threw everyone off. (Although im sure Bechdel did that on purpose). And you're right about the tightened mouth and how serious he is. Although, I think it's interesting that at the beginning she shows him as a regular dad, then goes on to show how serious, obsessive and different he is only to end the book with this new perspective. Suddenly the panels are happy and the two of them are getting along. It's definitely a weird relationship but as far as we know, it ends well. =0)
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