The Ordinary Devoted Mother Analysis

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Alison Bechdel’s “The Ordinary Devoted Mother” illustrates the hardships that Bechdel faces in both writing the memoir and her everyday life revolving around writing. As we see her writing this memoir, we also see the things that impact her such as her interest in psychoanalysis and dreams. As Bechdel puts it, “You can’t live and write at the same time” (79). This quote is very important as the reader follows along Bechdel’s story and see’s the hardships she faces when writing. The beginning of the work gives the reader some outline to Bechdel’s life. It starts with a dream sequence that will be very important to understanding Bechdel’s interest with psychoanalysis. Continuing to follow the story, Bechdel goes to therapy and talks to her mother …show more content…
Though the graphics do emphasize written points, to some readers it may be difficult to read and understand. Otherwise, the graphics are very pleasing and draw the eye to the key points Bechdel believes to be important. For example, all the time Bechdel is in therapy can be much easier understood by the use of graphics. By the use of graphics what would originally take multiple pages can be condensed into one easy to read page about past therapists and relationships. Not only that, but the graphics also give insight to how Bechdel perceives herself as well as the things around …show more content…
It is first difficult to understand due to the dream sequence at the beginning, which is not revealed to be a dream until later. While the dream does put emphasis on Bechdel’s interest with analysis, it seems a bit jumpy from time to time. Apart from the dreams, readers see much of the rest to be mostly chronological. As Bechdel continues to write, readers only see the aspects that Bechdel finds important like all the times Bechdel is on the phone with her mother. Whenever Bechdel says she needs to restart the memoir her mother always laughs and says, “HA! You have too many strands” (87,100). This is brought up time and time again throughout the writing, showing significance to the fact that Bechdel is struggling with how and what to write about. It not only shows the issues Bechdel has with writing the memoir, but it was also an important factor showing the relationship between Bechdel and her

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