Fun Home

  Right off the bat, the reader can tell that Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel is different than most any book that they have ever read, and looked at, before.  In the first chapter, it is clear that the father is the voice of the household in the story, although he does not take on the traditional male roles.  He was a clean freak, and it seems he took more pride in his house and what it was furnished with than his children and what they had accomplished.  The mother seems to have a limited role early on in this story, and I think that this will greatly affect all of the children's personality in this book.  It also briefly touches on a deep, dark secret that the father has.  In one scene, while the family is in a church, the text reads, "But would an ideal husband and father have sex with teenage boys?" as the father is looking at the young boys in church.  I think that this is symbolic because they are in church, which shows that the father must not have any regard for standards and morals, and truly does have a deep, dark secret.  I do not think that this secret was well hidden, however, as his children have little connection to him despite the tasks that he makes them do in order to keep his house perfect. One part of the story describes a scene where one of the children is forced to kiss their father goodnight, and can only seem to muster an awkward kiss on the knuckles, that was followed by running out of the room in an awkward situation.  The father seemed to never even be there at all, even when he was there.  The children seem to have a poor relationship with him, and I think that it will affect their personalities for the rest of the story.