The summer Alison turned thirteen, many significant events imbricated in the Bechdel family as well as throughout our country. First of all, Alison’s “father’s secret almost surfaced” (153). He started seeing a psychiatrist, which Alison realized as an adult, was probably to stop cheating on his wife with underage boys. Alison’s diary plays an important role in this chapter specifically because as Alison explains, “There was a lot going on that summer. I’m glad I was taking notes” (154). The Watergate scandal was also unfolding during this time in Alison’s life. It seemed to occur with what she perceived as the loss of her childlike innocence as she explains, “It was only one of many heavy-handed plot devices to befall my family during those strange, hot months” (155). …show more content…
Three personal events took place for Alison as she came of age that summer.
She started menstruating at the age of thirteen, her intimate discovery of masturbation, and the satisfaction she gained by dressing like a man for the first time. Alison does not tell her mother right away about her period nor does she write about it when it initially starts. She discloses “my diary was no longer the utterly reliable document it had been in my youth” (162). This may have just been an exceedingly difficult time her life because she leaves out her true feelings about how she feels about this new development she is going through. Alison learns how to masturbate and achieve orgasm when by rocking back and forth in her chair. She confesses to her diary using the secret code “ning” (169-172) to indicate menstruating and masturbating, two subjects she is too embarrassed to refer to in the literal sense. When Alison and her friend Beth miss a ride to the school dance with a boy named Randy, the girls raid Bruce’s closet and play dress up in his clothes instead. Alice compares this newfound enjoyment to being a “mystical pleasure, like finding myself fluent in a language I’d never been taught”
(182). One major even that was openly affected the Bechdel family was that Alison’s mom revealed to her, while swimming one day, that they might have to move. Her father had might some beer for an underage boy and there was a chance that he might have to do some time in jail. Alison wrote in her diary that night that the idea of moving was “horrid” (174). It’s interesting to note that the adjective she chose to write was referring to the move and not her father’s impending jail time. However, the Bechdel family didn’t have to move after all. The charges against Bruce were eventually dropped and he had to complete six months of counseling instead.
In “Westbury Court,” author Edwidge Danticat tells the readers about how one drastic event in her childhood can completely change her whole life. Danticat grew up in an apartment in a seemingly unprivileged area called Westbury Court in Brooklyn, New York. One day after school, she came home with her younger brother and immediately turned on the television to watch her favorite show. Suddenly, she and her show were interrupted by an abrupt knock on the apartment’s door. Apparently, there was a deadly fire coming from the apartment across from theirs. By then, Danticat realizes the importance of the phrase that her mother told her after the tragedy, “Sometimes
On page 113 she tells her brother to call her a man's name instead of her name so that she could fit in as a boy, not a girl. “Call me Albert instead of Alison” (Bechdel 113). Whenever her brothers were looking at a naked women calendar Alison had the curiosity and need to look at it. That may have helped her realize that she was actually interested in women, not men. When she left for college she started to experience and putting in place her sexual orientation. She got a girlfriend which actually supported her during hard times in her life like her father’s
Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, documents the author's discovery of her own and her father's homosexuality. The book touches upon many themes, including, but not limited to, the following: sexual orientation, family relationships, and suicide. Unlike most autobiographical works, Bechdel uses the comics graphic medium to tell her story. By close-reading or carefully analyzing pages fourteen through seventeen in Fun Home one can get a better understanding of how a Bechdel employs words and graphic devices to render specific events. One can also see how the specific content of the pages thematically connects to the book as a whole. As we will see, this portion of the book echoes the strained relationship between Bruce Bechdel and his family and his attempts to disguise his homosexuality by creating the image of an ideal family, themes which are prevalent throughout the rest of the nook.
In Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel entitled Fun Home, the author expresses her life in a comical manner where she explains the relationship between her and her family, pointedly her father who acts as a father figure to the family as she undergoes her exhaustive search for sexuality. Furthermore, the story describes the relationship between a daughter and a father with inversed gender roles as sexuality is questioned. Throughout the novel, the author suggests that one’s identity is impacted by their environment because one’s true self is created through the ability of a person to distinguish reality from fictional despotism.
Abigail and Becky Reed were called by their mother “The September Sisters”, because their birthdays are only a day apart and they pretend that they’re best friends. Abby and her younger sister Becky are always at each others throats. But really, they delight in making each other miserable. Then, Becky disappears in the middle of the night, causing the jealous-filled Abigail to become more envious as searches for Becky start and she is disregarded. The distress of Becky’s disappearance soon haunts Abby when the first day of school approaches and Becky’s disappearance is still fresh on everyone’s mind. Abby is described to have been a person ...
The setting is important for “The Diary of Anne Frank” because it sets the mood of the play. Anne talks about how their hiding place looks. “The rooms are dusty, the curtains are in rags. Chairs and tables are overturned.” (Anne Frank 701) The quote states that the room is in bad condition and not a very good environment to live. Anne also states the area of their hiding place. “It is the top floor of a warehouse and office building in Amsterdam, Holland.” (anne Frank 701) Anne states the location of their hiding location. Lasty, the area they were hiding was very dangerous for the Jews, and their hideout was a very small, old, and ugly place to live.
Alison Bechdel’s beautiful graphic novel Fun Home explores the cause and effect relationship that exists between her late father Bruce’s sexuality and his internalized homophobia and disapproval of her own budding sexuality throughout her young life. The book defies the natural chronological order of most novels by revisiting key points in her life multiple times, each instance from a slightly different viewpoint, or revealing vaguely different information. Because of this, we are shown her coming out three times throughout the novel, even though in one chapter it isn’t explicitly stated. Each time, though, is slightly different, because we are shown a different person’s reaction or point of view on the announcement. The themes of each chapter in which her coming out takes place affect the announcement itself, and change whose reaction is shown in the forefront.
There is a famous 1961 film called West Side Story. In this film the “Sharks”, who are Puerto Rican immigrants battle the “Jets”, who are New Yorkers, for claim of New York City. Often erupting into violence, these two different culture groups despise each other simply because of the ignorance both have experienced. Through the rubble a love story emerges and eventually put aside their differences. This is however after several knife attacks, gunshots fired, deaths, and a hate filled mamba dance routine. Stories such as this about cultural differences are ones that one would think are far in the past. That as a society, we have moved past the differences accepting and embracing the differences that make each individual unique. But this is not the case, especially not in Northern Ireland during the 1960s till the 1980s. In Ireland, especially in Northern Ireland, religion has been the main divider between the Irish. The Catholics and Protestants have become forms of ethnicity in which the natives identify with. In John Conroy’s book, Belfast Diary, one sees an American journalist’s perspective on the conflict which hinders Ireland. The “democratic system” that was in place created an unstable power struggle only lending more fuel to the fire between these two groups. Strong examples of the unbalanced system are seen as John Conroy gives the reader access to his experience of “the Troubles” of Northern Ireland.
to my efforts because I believe I was one of the best workers he has
...e does this in utilizing the Bible, which is associated with male authority, to back up her assertions. She works within the patriarchy of society, saying, “’Had God commanded maidenhood to all Marriage would be condemned beyond recall, And certainty if seed were never sown, How ever could virginity be grown?’” She is simply attempting to justify her unscrupulous behavior and her being married five times with her misinterpreted Bible verses. In her tale, Alison can be seen as confirming the misogynist ideals through her promiscuous acts. Instead of seeking a husband while keeping feminist intentions in mind, she merely seeks someone who will provide for her in exchange for lewd sexual favors, thus overthrowing the idea of being a strong, independent female.
The novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel is about the Bechdel family, and the struggles that they endured during their lifetime. The Bechdel family lived in a town in Pennsylvania and directed a funeral home business. Alison’s father Bruce was having sexual relationships with men and boys, the mother Helen, was fully aware of Bruce’s adulterous actions. Alison discovered at an early age that she wanted to dress as a boy and she eventually concluded that she was attracted to women, and at the age of 19 she came out as a lesbian. Not too long after she told her mother that she was a lesbian, her mother revealed that she asked Bruce for a divorce, within two weeks of the revelation Bruce died. Alison suspected that it was a suicide when she began to discover evidence that would correlate to his death. The themes that were present in the novel range from gender identity, repression,
Eight years have passed. The narrator is 26 years old, and is now a mother; just like Alice. In the eight years Alice had lost her husband and two of her children. She is old and has tumor filled knees. Alice says in lines 98-105, “And in those eight years I had married and become the mother of sons and did not always keep my floors clean or my hair combed or my legs oiled and I learned to like the taste of beer and how to talk the bad-woman talk… Alice, when I saw her again, was in black, after the funeral of my brother.” It wasn’t until the narrator had gone through exactly what Alice had gone through did she realize why Alice had lived the way she did. In lines 113-117, she says, “When I found Alice sitting alone… I was afraid to speak because there was too much I wanted to say.”
Bruce forces Alison to dress up more in a feminine way like he always wanted to do for himself. At times he forces her to wear a clothing or jewelries that were more feminine. “What’re you afraid of? Being beautiful? PUT IT ON, GODDAMN IT!” (Bechdel 99). She feels forced to follow her father’s orders yet she still did it. Bruce is harsh on his daughter because as a kid he wanted to dress up like a girl and so by deciding what Alison should wear, he is reliving his childhood. In the reading, Bodies and Bathroom, same idea is addressed “…, in which a 10-year-old biologically male student wanted to be known by a female name and dress like a girl. The school, he said, ultimately agreed” (Frosch 245). Although, Bruce feels frightened by the idea of announcing his identity, based on Alison, they could have accepted who he was as a person and a father. If only Bruce has shown his identity and sexual desires, then he could have enjoyed his life and escape the darkness he was living in. While Alison was able to over come her shame while Bruce died with his secret.
Because they are hiding, Anne cannot have a normal school experience, so she is homeschooled. Anne’s liking for knowledge of literature grows and enjoys studying and writing. To pass time, Anne would often study or read.
Have you ever had a diary?well Anne Frank did,and it's a well known book!Anne Frank was a young girl who lived in Germany. Anne and her family soon had to into hiding from Hitler,Germany's president.Will her family survive?