The Artist’s Style
In her comic graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Bechdel uses a reflective visual narrative writing style to deliver her message to readers. The style allows the artist to document events that took place years ago in this famous 2006 memoir. The events of Bechdel’s book are narrated from the artist’s first-person view since they took place years before her father’s death, hence the reflective style of the novel. The author uses this reflective narrative style to unfold personal life experiences and her father’s character. To gain a more profound understanding of this work, the present essay will analyze its various aspects, such as literal and symbolical meanings, the context, the characters, and other artistic choices.
The Subject and the Theme of the Book
The book delves into her childhood in rural Pennsylvania, her self-discovery of her sexuality, and the complicated relationship she had with her father, who was a funeral home director and English teacher. The memoir takes inspiration from themes in James Joyce’s Ulysses, which her father taught. It uses literary and cultural references, including the funeral home, to symbolize the Bechdel family’s repressed emotions and hidden desires (Villamarín-Freire). The book also discusses her father’s sexuality and his affairs with other men, which he kept secret from his loved ones. Ultimately, Fun Home is a moving and deeply personal exploration of family dynamics, identity, and the pursuit of self-expression, praised for its innovative use of the graphic novel format.
How the Style Complements the Subject Matter
The reflective visual narrative style in Fun Home perfectly fits the subject matter, as it combines Bechdel’s words with her illustrations to create a powerful and emotionally resonant reading experience. The graphic novel format allows the reader to see Bechdel’s memories and experiences come to life in a way that a traditional memoir could not. The visual style effectively conveys the complexity of the book’s themes, including family relationships, identity, and the struggle for self-expression (Villamarín-Freire). The illustrations often add emotional depth and meaning to the text.
The Use of Panels
Bechdel used several panels in the story to communicate her message to readers. The more significant part of the graphic novel contains panels, which communicate emotions more than their illustrations (Harvest Books). The panels in this graphic novel are evenly distributed since the author included more than three on each page. However, there are small and large panels depending on the specific context the author presents in each one.
The Setting and the Context of the Story
The author has given the story’s context by starting with her father’s background. In particular, she compared her father to many other fathers with the illustration, “Like many fathers, mine could occasionally be prevailed on for a spot of ‘Airplane” (Bechdel 14-17). This context allows the reader to create a mental image regarding Bechdel’s relationship with her father when she was young. The following parts of the story are built around how she grew up with her father, brothers, mother, and the family’s babysitter, Roy (Bechdel 22-25). The experiences narrated reflectively are built around the context of Bechdel and her father.
Non-Chronological Order in the Story
Fun Home, A Family Tragicomic, is a non-chronological story that travels back and forth in time to capture Bechdel’s memories. Each part of the story has a different panel that illustrates a different story about the author and her experiences with the family in Pennsylvania. The arrangement of the story matters since it helps the reader identify themes quickly. In this case, the non-chronological arrangement of the panels reveals how Bechdel’s childhood experiences shaped her current experiences.
The Use of Visual and Verbal Elements to Convey the Characters’ Emotions
The characters in the novel are described using their facial expressions and ways of talking. Bechdel has artistically varied the former while matching them with the words. For instance, during Bechdel’s trip with her father to a luncheonette, she expresses her shock and disbelief through her art’s facial expressions. When her father asks if she wants to be like the “gay” looking woman, she responds by saying “No,” and the emotions are identifiable from the character’s facial expressions (Bechdel 26-29). Other expressions to display emotions are visible during Alison’s experience with a cadaver in their funeral home (Bechdel 18-25). The author shows how she was shocked when her father was having surgery on a cadaver.
The Use of Text: Narration vs. Dialog
The artist has utilized narration boxes and dialogue bubbles to move the plot forward. However, Bechdel uses narration rather than dialogue since the story is a narrative memoir. Most of the panels have narration boxes that explain the events that are happening. The author consistently uses a uniform font throughout the novel, and the only part where Bechdel uses a bold font is in “The Centerfold.” Bechdel used a bold font to show the transition from one theme to another and to insist on the importance of that part to readers and her life.
The Image-to-Text Ratio
The image-to-text ratio in Fun Home is relatively high, with most of each page being taken up by illustrations. While plenty of words are in the book, the visuals are just as important in conveying the story’s themes and emotions (Utell). This ratio is essential for the tale because the graphic novel format allows images to capture the essence of Bechdel’s childhood memories and her relationship with her father.
The Use of Color to Portray the Setting
Bechdel’s book is black-and-white with a blue tint. The artist uses a variety of colors to express her creativity, emotions, and the atmosphere of the story. Color is vital to the setting since it establishes the stage for the story and helps a reader understand it quickly. Dull colors represent dull settings, and bright colors portray enjoyable and often happy events.
Works Cited
Bechdel, Alison. Alison Bechdel, Fun Home A Family Tragicomic. PDF File, 2006.
Harvest Books. “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.” YouTube, Web.
Utell, Janine. The Comics of Alison Bechdel: From the Outside in. Critical Approaches to Comics, 2020.
Villamarín-Freire, Sara. “Two Ways of Looking at the Father: Sharon Olds’ The Father and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.” 452ºF. Revista de Teoría de la literatura y Literatura Comparada, vol. 12, no. 27, 2022, pp. 165-183.