The Ordinary Devoted Mother Analysis

The Theme of Reading and Writing in Bechdel’s Work

Alison Bechdel isn’t a normal author. She uses graphics, and wordplay to tell a very engaging, and interesting story. One of these stories titled “The Ordinary Devoted Mother”, Bechdel tells the story of her trying to write a memoir about her mom. One of the major themes in this story is reading, and writing. Bechdel explores what writing is, how it is important, and how she perceives writing herself.

“I want to capture her voice, her precise wording, her deadpan humor. I don’t think I could possibly re-create it on my own.” As you see her Bechdel is having an incredibly hard time trying to come up with the words to say. She looks to the greats like Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, and she studies their writing techniques to try to improve her own. She keeps trying to change her style instead of making her own style. Like her mom said in this quote, “Alison you should just write whatever you want to write.” Bechdel is struggling to grasp what she’s missing in her story. She goes to a psychiatrist to try to get answers, but still comes up dry. She just can’t stop thinking about what she’s missing from the story. This is reflected in her writing throughout the piece.

This indirectly shows us her feelings about writing.

She feels writing is a reflection of her inner thoughts. Writing helps her to bring out her struggles, and inner feelings about her life. When she looks back at Woolf’s work she says “Virginia Woolf seems to have considered her diary to be more of an external record, an account of “Life” rather than the “soul”. This is the same way that Bechdel’s mother writes. She doesn’t look into the soul, Bechdel does. Bechdel investigates her own soul in order to bring the truth out in her writing. Bechdel also takes some ideas from both Woolf and her mom. For instance like Woolf Bechdel wants to learn more about her mom. This unlocks memories that she’s tried to

suppress.
When you write a personal piece of work about a family member, or some inner demons, it’s kind of like therapy in a way. You can really take what you feel, and organize it to try to understand it. Bechdel takes what she learns in her own therapy sessions, and she puts her ideas into words. At therapy Bechdel can get all her feelings out about her mother. Therapy unlocks her brain, and allows her to further investigate her issues. This same thing happens when Bechdel writes. Writing lets her explore various parts of her life, like how her dad wasn’t always there for her, and how her mother was. When you read her work you can feel her emotions flow out. Bechdel not only writes with her brain. She writes with her heart.
When you read her work you can feel her emotions flow out. She finds reading just as important as writing. When you read you take a glimpse into the mind of the writer. This is a big part of Bechdel’s work. She wants us to read her stories, and to connect with her about writing, and it helps to emphasize the importance of reading and writing. Bechdel writes to not only help herself, but also to help the reader understand why she’s writing.
Now does this mean that she understands the creative process of writing? Yes it does. Bechdel probably understands it more than some other authors. I feel she explains it really well in this autobiographical story. She explains what it’s like trying to bring a complicated story together. She explains it clearly here. “As of this moment, I’ve been struggling for four years with the writing of this book, this memoir about my mom.” This shows how hard it is to write something like this. It takes a long time to write a story. Especially one this complicated. A story about her own mother. She has to take a lot of pieces of her life, and put them all together. It was very creative of her to add the hand drawn pictures into the novel. It brings out her internal emotions, and helps us to visualize how she writes. This all tells us that she is a creative writer, and she does in fact understand the finer points of writing. I don’t even think that there’s an argument. She has a very unique style when she writes, and isn’t that the exact thing that makes an author creative? Every author is different, and they all bring their different styles to the table. Well Bechdel does the same exact thing. She just has a different approach. That’s the beauty and essence of writing you can express your feelings in any way you want. This is exactly what Bechdel does.
Bechdel is an amazing author, and obviously she understands writing, and reading really well. She can use her words to express emotion, and to explain her feelings toward the creative process in general. Writing is a very good way to express opinions, emotions, and to tell a story. Bechdel does all these things beautifully. I feel that her writing is different in a good way. She has a good understanding of the creative writing process. She can display all her emotions, and all her inner thoughts. In a way Bechdel’s writing, and the writings of others works show us how writing is so important to us, and how reading and writing go hand in hand.