Fun Home Part II

The most striking aspect to me of this narrative was the number of contrasting images throughout the work., the apparent existence of things due entirely to their opposition. For example, the narrator's efforts to become "mannish" because of her father's lack of masculinity, Bechdel's desire to express herself articulately because of her father's inability to do so, Bruce's apparently redeeming qualities that were wrought from his generally tyrannical behavior. Even the landscape of Bechdel's parents' marriage, which she describes as intensely toxic, is made so because of the constant reminders of what could have been. While her father makes consistently silent forays into guilt-ridden homosexual encounters, her mother participates in plays and visits her friends in New York. This inherently contradictory nature, in fact, is highlighted in a play Bechdel's mother participates in, The Importance of Being Earnest. As anyone who has read the play knows, it is humorous due to its incongruity, its contradictory turn of phrase. This contradiction of perceptions of what is important resonates with Bechdel, whom has lived her life in such a manner, from her parents' unhappy marriage to her sexual confusion and finally orientation. "Now to minor matters. Are your parents living?" (157) This quote from Earnest holds especially potent meaning, as it mirrors her later disjointed mirth at the death of her father. "He got-- HA HA HA-- hit by a truck!". . . the idea that my vital, passionate father was decomposing in a grave was ridiculous." (229) What Bechdel failed to realize at the time is that the mirth created by Wilde's contradiction  was wrought from its truthfulness in society.

What Bechdel seems to be ultimately conveying here is that the positive aspects of her life were made clear exactly because of their opposition. To quote one very cliche platitude, "One cannot have darkness without the light"; there can be no life without death. This is extremely evident in her relationship with her father. toward the end of her narrative, Bechdel explains a certain number of redeeming qualities she found in her father, happy memories she has of him, such as her correlation with him and her love of literature. It is evidenced specifically in the Ulysses episode. "On our final evening, a family friend remarked admiringly to Joan on the close relationship between my father and me. 'It's really unnatural. Err. . . I mean, unusual.'" (225) Although Bruce Bechdel's traits had in many ways caused his daughter to take opposite stances in compensation for him, this would not have been possible without his example. Like Earnest, the contradiction seems morbidly humorous in its truth. Bruce made his daughter the way she was by giving her an example of what she didn't want for herself. In my opinion, the discovery of the self is a systematic process of eliminating those things which we dislike or even abhor in our society. This drive led Bechdel to be loud where her father was silent, to speak where her father was inarticulate. Yet in the end, she did love her father. Her misplaced guilt over his death helped her develop, and to write this novel. Her love and hatred of her father, her empathy and disgust for his decisions, and their distant closeness, molded her into the woman she became. In the words of Tyrion Lannister, a renowned father hater, "Life is full of these little ironies." I believe Ms. Bechdel would heartily agree.