Fun Home is an autobiographical graphic novel by American author and cartoonist Alison Bechdel. It follows the story of his maturation, growing up in Pennsylvania, leaving home and coming to terms with his sexuality. In the process, he discovers some surprising secrets that his family had hidden from everyone, including each other. Bechdel uses this piece to argue that the structure of the home is a reflection of the family and a way in which the family unit can express itself. This particular family uses their home to hide and create a facade that hides their problems from the rest of the world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The decision to tell this story as a graphic novel helps paint a fuller picture for its audience. Bechdel recreates photographs and entire locations, references old diary entries, even imitates her old handwriting and the wallpaper of her childhood home. She goes so far as to imitate her father's handwriting, which she calls "one of the craziest rabbit holes [he] went down on this project (Chute)." He goes to great lengths to preserve the authenticity of the graphic novel, and the accuracy of this retelling seems to be of great importance to Bechdel. However, he views his childhood through adult lenses, which inadvertently changes the way he sees things. Bechdel even calls Fun Home a “revision” of his story (Tison). While all reference material adds credibility to his story, memories may not be entirely accurate and may have warped and shifted over time. In general, a house is a reflection of its inhabitants. From the architecture to the accessories, a lot can be said about the family that lives there. Architect Lindsay Daniel says, "there is an intimate relationship between your visual taste and your values." Suggesting that we can learn something about a person by the way they hold their space. Perhaps we unconsciously judge each other quickly, with the little knowledge we have about them, before we understand them and learn something deeper. We look at the way they dress, how they keep the car, the organization of work and that hasty judgment can also extend to residences. Different building materials can also evoke different sensations. Carlos Raul Villanueva, famous Venezuelan architect, gives an example of concrete and defines it as "a symbol of the building progress of an entire century, submissive and strong like an elephant, monumental like stone, humble like brick". Something as simple as building material can speak for the house and send a message about the people living inside without even mentioning its contents. Bechdel refers, more than once, to his father's specificity and high expectations for the maintenance of the house. Bruce Bechdel carefully selects every piece in the house and takes care of it. He has a passion and an eye for design which he extends not only to his home but also to those he restores, which are a hobby and an outlet for him. He also employs his children to help him take care of the house. In the first chapter, while doing household chores, Bechdel says, "I began to resent the way my father treated his furniture like children and his children like furniture (Bechdel)." It's not typical for a child to enjoy doing housework, but it seems that Bruce takes these tasks to the extreme, expecting every aspect of the house to remain perfectly tidy and, to Alison, it seems that this tidiness is to the detriment of his children. If the house is a reflection of the family that lives within it, then it is clearly important to Bruce that he and his family are perceivedas if put together and almost perfect. This overcompensation may stem from Bruce's secret of being an out homosexual and his desire to keep such information private. He wants to create the impression that he and his family are perfect by making his house perfect. Bechdel makes many allusions to other famous works in this story. He does this to help audiences better understand his history and childhood through works that audiences may already be familiar with. Bechdel may also reference these materials not only for the reader's benefit, but because they help Bechdel herself better understand her existence, her family, and her relationships. Time and again he compares the events of his life to those of Greek tragedies. However, one reference that particularly stands out is the comparison between the Bechdel family and the Addams family. He points out his mother's resemblance to Morticia, the way a bat occasionally flies into their house, and the similarities in the family activities. The most telling comparison Bechdel makes is to their homes. In the second chapter, Bechdel writes about his Addams Family comics, saying, "the captions deluded me, as did the ironic reversal of suburban conformity: Here were the familiar high, dark ceilings, the peeling wallpaper, and the menacing horsehair furniture in my house (Bechdel).” In this passage, Bechdel acknowledges that her family is unusual and nontraditional without saying so in an indirect way by implying that the Addams family is nonconformist and that her family is like the Addams family again those of Wednesday Addams in the form of two side-by-side images, while acknowledging that they have the same lamp, which in this case is a form of self-expression. He then describes Wednesday as a “worried girl”. the Addams Family in general as a substitute for their own. Furthermore, The Addams Family is a somewhat autobiographical story of the family of the creator, Charles Addams, which may serve as inspiration for Bechdel to turn his own life into a cartoon The title of Fun Home comes from the nickname the Bechdel family gave to their family funeral business. However, it could also be a reference to a fun house, as in a fun room with mirrors and slanted floors, which is usually found in a fun house. amusement park. The mirrors found in fun houses do not show a perfect reflection of how things are, instead they show distorted and deformed interpretations of a subject, making them appear fat, short or upside down. Bechdel depicts mirrors in many of her illustrations in Fun Home, but only in stories from her childhood. Mirrors feature prominently in his childhood home. Bruce and Helen Bechdel try to maintain a perfect image of their family and home but things are not at all what they seem from the outside. When you examine their seemingly perfect lives, what you reflect is a carefully crafted version of how they want to be perceived. Furthermore, telling this story many years after the actual events makes things from the past seem different, warped and warped over time, likely resulting in a false retelling. Artist Lydia Davis calls this “autofictionography,” coining a term for the blurry, creative space between fiction and memory (Freedman). "Remember: This is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get custom essay In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel uses her childhood home as the backdrop for her story about growing up. It's unclear whether the house.