Fun Home 2

Sexual orientation is a big part in Alison’s relationship with her father. I believe that for the longest time Alison felt distanced from her father and also felt as though he was mean and all he cared about was work and fixing up the house. Alison tells her parents that she is a in a relationship with Joan before her father’s death. I believe that this served as a way to bring Alison and her father closer before his death.  Alison and her father went to the movies and they had a discussion of his past and his sexual orientation.  In the beginning of the book Bechdels father had a secret I couldn’t quit put my finger on I felt as though he was hiding behind cleaning and making things perfect just so he could come off as perfect. I felt as though the father didn’t want anyone to know of his flaws and the fact that he likes boys. It took a lot for Alison to come out to her parents and I feel like this is a lot about self discovery. I feel like since Alison lived in a different generation from her father it was easier for her to come out because society didn’t frown on it as much as they did for her father’s generation. I feel as though Alison and her father never had a spectacular relationship but this “coming out” in the movie answered any questions and made her closer with her father right before his death. In the end Bechdels father proved he was there for her at even though she did not believe it all the time. In the end Alison’s father caught her in the pool “ He was there to catch me when I lept.” This is just a demonstration that they didn’t get along but when it was important her father was there. I feel as though it was a very difficult thing for the father to tell his past to Alison, but at the same time I feel that he did it for her and to show her she isn’t alone and he understands.

Fun Home 1

Reading “Fun Home” is a completely different experience then reading other novels. Alison Bechdel took her child hood and brought it to life. The father is very particular in the first chapter before he commits “suicide”. This family had deep hidden secrets that the father tried to mask by doing different projects around the house. The father tried so hard to make everything look so perfect just to hide the fact that everything wasn’t even close to perfect. I also think that the father worked so hard to make his house and family the way he wanted that he was trying to hide a secret from himself one that not even he wanted to believe or think about. After the funeral some of the fathers secrets started coming out. I believe the father was very unhappy when he had to move home because his own father died of a heart attack. I think that Bechdel’s father was forced into a life he did not want to be in. He became a teacher and worked part time at the funeral parlor. I think that the father was happy overseas in Europe in the army and I believe that he moved home to honor is father and he made the best out of a bad situation and that wasn’t the life he wanted but it was the life he had to live.

The name “fun home” is very ironic for the funeral parlor because it is just the opposite of that. In the “fun home” the children were surrounded by caskets and death the father even dressed the dead up for their funeral. I do not understand why it is called fun home. The only fun thing about going to the funeral home was when the children were about to go to bed the grandmother would tell stories about their dad when he was a child.

After the father’s death the children were not upset. The family all though that the father commited suicide and no one seemed to care or was upset by this. Bechdel sounded like she had a bad childhood and her father wasn’t the best but  she still talks about him highly in some instances which makes me think that they had secret bond that we don’t know about yet.

Time line Mate

·         Born 1935

·         Receives first diary at age 10 from Minerva

·         Feb 18 1946 first time she lied for Minerva

·         July 23 buried first diary

·         Dec 1953 father died and she receives her 2^nd diary fat the funeral she is introduced to the other Maribal girls

·         July 3 graduates she was forced to choose between Raul and Betro and she decided to choose neither

·         Sept 19 she leaves for the capital and goes to school with Minerva, originally going to school to be a lawyer now she changed to philosophy and this is the first time Mate tries to be her own person

·         April 28 1956 was awarded to be queen of the capital

·         Took a break from writing until 1957

·         Summer break 1957 she moves in with Minerva. She first meets Palomino when he was dropping off a package at her window. This is where she first finds out about the revolution. The next day she decides to join the revolution. While in the home Mate also mends Minerva’s marriage.

·         Oct. 14 Mate moves back to the capital after summer break and now becomes “Mariposa #2” important because this means butterfly.

·         Dec 16 Palomino and Mate confess love for each other and here is the first time they both find out what each other’s real names are. (Palomino- Leandro Guzman Rodriguez

·         Feb 14 1958- Palomino and Mate wed

·         Mate had her daughter named Jacquelyn

·         March 16 1958- Mate has been in jail for 55 days now and this is significant because she sneaked in a journal.

Life in the Dominican was tough during the 20^th century. There was a ton of violence and secrecy causing no one to feel safe. At one point during the novel Dede tells us of the time where she slammed her butterfly orchid in the car door. Dede shut the car door so hard that she relates it to a gunshot. “Any Dominican of a certain generation would have jumped at that gunshot sound.” The car door slamming so loud scarring Dede just shows us, the reader, how unsafe she felt living in the Dominican. Now a days if we slam a car door we think nothing of it but hearing how nervous Dede got just because she shut her car door hard shows us how nervous and anxious everyone must have been in that society at that time.  I can’t imagine what it would be like consistently living so nervous and constantly watching your back, I feel like that is no way to live.

i am an emotional creature

In class when we did a presentation of “Things I heard about sex” I was surprised. Reading this piece prior to class I didn’t understand it. I was very confused as to what any of these lines had to do with each other. After putting the words into a presentation it all made some sense. I feel like you have to really read deeper in this story where as in “The Vagina Monologues” everything was written right out for you, you didn’t have to think about what Eve was trying to tell you she just bluntly said it.

                I feel as though Eve purposely wrote “I am an Emotional Creature” in a poem form or just an answer for, to make us think and to use our own interpretations as well as experiences to understand the book.  

                I feel as though this book relates to my life very well. I can see me and my best friends discussing some of these same topics in the novel. “Would you Rather (II)” describes me and my friends perfectly. In this piece you have one girl talking and asking questions and the other girl doesn’t want to play at all. I and my friends have actually done this before. I feel like this piece was added because it gives a sense of realism to the book. I feel that some of these pieces are just put in to make you relate to the book and realize a lot of it is very relatable too much of female society today.

“I am an emotional creature” is inspiring. I feel like this book should be read by every girl growing up. In just the introduction I felt so empowered. Topics were brought up that I didn’t take too much time to think about. “It’s a call to your original girl self, to your emotional creature self, to move at you speed, to walk with your step, to wear your color.” This sentence stuck out to me. This book embraces differences, such as in the vagina monologues. This book is very similar, but I believed it is toned down and not so in your face. A lot of different issues are brought up in this book such as women trafficking, eating disorders, and people living all over the world in different lifestyles. This book embraces being a woman. I feel like this book was written not only to raise awareness of how society affects women it also just shows to every girl that they are not alone, which is something that everyone looks for when they want to belong. This book is so enlightening and there is controversies which every girl can relate to, including me.