Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Analysis

“[It is] tempting to suggest, in [recollection], that our family was a sham. That our house was not a real home at all but the simulacrum of one, a museum. Yet we really were a family, and we really did live in those period rooms.” (Bechdel 17) These words of Alison Bechdel perfectly describe her family. Bechdel may not be widely recognized, however she did introduce the uniqueness of her book to the world as a tragicomic. As the writer and artist of this tragicomic, she only shows what she wants the readers to see. The work is a black and white representation of her coming to a realization of her own homosexuality and a complex relationship with her father. However, Bechdel offers a graphic narrative so in depth and honest that her experience and the fact that she directly narrated and illustrated her book make it more personal, therefore making …show more content…
It is emotional, insightful, complex, and the visual and verbal details are mind-bogglingly captured by Bechdel as the cartoonist. The story progresses as the linking of Bechdel’s memoir of growing up in Pennsylvania, having deep love for reading and books, writing to her father, complex relationships with her parents, and staying true to herself by coming-out. Bechdel’s illustrated autobiography, Fun Home, has brought a lot of attention for the past couple years. Whether it is being praised for its honesty or challenged for its content, Bechdel has created a work that inspires strong responses. Part of what makes Fun Home a best-selling masterpiece and is becoming more common in college classes and so successful are the topics that it carries. Bechdel challenges the concepts of sexual orientation and most importantly fatherhood through her own stories so that they may take on a deeper meaning in the