Bruce Through Alison
When I finished Fun Home it left me with very conflicting
opinions about Bruce as a father. At the beginning Bechdel paints Bruce as a
cold and almost controlling guardian. Later, as Alison explores her identity
she discovers how similar she and Bruce are and finds warmth in those rare
moments of connection. Throughout the novel she seems to have a soft perception
of Bruce despite their lack of a complete relationship.
When Alison was a kid Bruce often forced her to do things
he wished he could have done as a kid growing up. Bruce cares about the way he
dresses, which can be seen in the panel where he is looking at a fashion
magazine and where he dresses up to go out. From Alison’s point of view, you
see him tell her, “Yellow turtleneck. Now,” when she was getting dressed (15).
While Alison was young she enjoyed leaving her hair short and wearing more
androgynous clothing while Bruce wanted the opposite. Bruce was insistent that
she read the books he enjoyed and saw himself in. I think Bruce was hoping that
Alison would see herself in those books as he did and develop into a version of
himself he couldn’t be. Throughout Alison’s coming of age Bruce seemed to be
trying to live a life through her.
Regardless of this, Alison still has fond memories with
Bruce. A scene I found particularly warm was when they were playing piano
together and a friend admired, “the close relationship between me and my
father,” (225). Alison craves understanding and Bruce is able to give her those
little moments where she feels like she’s found a connection with someone.
Bruce also did not shun her after she came out and even tried to take her to a
gay bar in town. Bruce was like a mentor to Alison’s exploration of identity
and coming of age. It almost seemed like Alison was able to forget all the
crimes and wrongs her father committed when she was young in exchange for these
moments of connection. Alison views her father with almost rose-tinted glasses,
and it leaves the reader questioning how reliable her narrative is. Personally,
I think Bruce was definitely not a good father, but an ok one? Maybe.
Good post. I think the thoughts you bring up are valid and should be discussed. It does seem like really switches up her opinion of him as she gets old but it seems like they have more in common when she is older. Bruce was very controlling of her when she was younger and seemed to be trying to live through her which is why I agree that he wants totally the best dad. I agree it does seem like at the end she is viewing her dad with rose-tinted glasses. I really like that description of her narration towards her dad at the end.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that Alison viewed her father with rose-tinted glasses, and maybe forgave him a little too quickly for the things he did. I think what Alison was doing at the end was kind of like Bruce trying to live through Alison at the beginning of the book. They're both trying to see themselves in one another, and connect as family. Unfortunately, it kind of seems like Alison was trying a lot harder than Bruce. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI think seeing Bruce differently throughout the book is what really made the story stand out to me. The way Allison slowly portrays Bruce's complexity as a character helps sell the passing on of Bruce's character onto Allison, and how they are more interconnected than they initially seem.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, by the end of the book I found myself with mixed feelings. I think once we see Allison try so hard to connect herself with a part of her father after her death, and we begin to see some more light, it was hard for me not to begin to like him. It's almost like the way he acted when she was young begins to make sense to us after wards.
ReplyDeleteNice Post! I totally agree with you. I think at first, I thought Bruce was a really bad father but the further we went into the book the more positive Alison described him to us. The relationship between Bruce and Alison was definitely complicated and I like how you said Alison saw him through rose-tinted glasses.
ReplyDeleteI think Sigmund Freud wrote somewhere that the quintessential nature of all family relationships is ambivalence (or something along those lines), and Alison's depiction of Bruce is in so many ways ambivalent. This does not mean "vague" or "unclear" or "ambiguous," but the sense of being *equally compelled in two opposite directions*. There is no way Alison could neatly sum up her feelings about her father, and on some level perhaps this is true of all of us: these familial relations are lifelong, and we spend incalculable amounts of time together, and we see each other at our worst, best, and all the gradations in between. And Alison faces some particular circumstances that make her relations with her father especially ambivalent. One of the most consistently interesting dynamics in the book, for me, is the way that it enables us to see the author herself sorting through and often revising her own memories--she can understand and even emphathize with Bruce in new ways, when she learns more about him at the end of his life, and this leads her to revise and reconsider some ways he seems "cold" or "detached" earlier.
ReplyDeleteHer second book goes into equal depth and complexity contemplating her mother, her relationship with her mother, and how her own autobiographical art (writing a book about her mother and her husband) has affected that relationship. Highly recommend, especially if you like ambivalence in the depiction of familial relations!
I definitely agree that Allison may have been unreliable in that she viewed her father as a better parent than he was. Possibly, the fact that he didn't show her much attention as a child caused her to become really excited when her father did show her attention later on in life. Many of the good memories she brings up of her father (talking about books or drawing together) should be part of the normal parent-child relationship instead of a core memory like it seems to be for Allison. You also make a good point that Bruce is living vicariously through Allison because he was never able to express his own identity, but this also made me think about his relationship with her siblings. If he showed Allison attention because he could express his femininity through her, I wonder how much attention her brothers ever got from him growing up.
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