Category: Student Posts

I found many different visual patterns throughout “The Ideal Husband”. The settings of each frame of the chapter repeat themselves frequently. There are many frames that take place on the porch, many frames that are simply writing or text on a page, and many frames that take place in the kitchen. There are also several patterns of individual objects. The mother wears a headband in most of the frames that she is in. The mother, the father, and Alison all smoke throughout the chapter, and body and facial hair is shown on many men throughout the chapter.

There are also many patterns in the narrative. The father faces legal charges at the same time Nixon is being impeached, Alison receives her period and the locust emerge from the larva, and the idea of the play “The Importance of Being Earnest” and the fathers interest in young boys.

,Greer

One pattern that I have noticed in the sixth chapter (“Ideal Husband”) of Fun Home is change. There are several changes in terms of history, plot and characters that occurs within the chapter. For example, picking up the seventeen year locust represents the change of the insect from a larva to an adult. This was especially interesting as it corresponded with Alison going through puberty, when usually insects have a much faster life cycle. To add onto this, Alison getting a period is a turning point in her life in which she is moving towards being an adult from a kid. Other than this, Alison’s dad going to the psychiatrist and president Nixon’s impeachment are other examples of significant changes that occurs in this chapter.

Throughout this chapter, many major events take place, all contributing to the idea that perhaps life is becoming much more real for Alison. There are numerous instances in Alison’s immediate life as well as the life of those around her where they must face the truth and by the end of the chapter, they do. There are three very clear examples: Alison’s Father seeing a psychiatrist, Nixon’s impeachment, and Alison getting her period. Alison’s Father is a little reluctant to let his family know that he is seeing a psychiatrist at the beginning. Alison even calls these meeting a ‘secret’. But, as the chapter progresses, Alison refers to “the sessions” (Bechdel, 184) very easily and like a normal part of life. Alison’s Father and her entire family face the truth and acknowledge that this is just another part of their life. Another interesting cycle where Alison must learn to face the truth is when she gets her period. Originally, she kind of brushes it off and decides that she doesn’t have to tell her mother about her period for a while. But, by the end of the chapter, Alison does get the confidence to talk to her mother about what happened. Although her mother doesn’t seem to care that much, Alison’s secret does come to light and Alison is able to face the truth which is a very big breakthrough. Lastly, Nixon’s impeachment process begins. At the beginning of the chapter this is just an idea but when we are nearing the end of the chapter, Nixon “threw in the towel” (Bechdel, 181). He realized that if he wanted to leave office without the reputation of being impeached, he had to resign. Nixon faces the truth. These are just three of the many examples of characters facing the truth throughout this chapter.

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In Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel Fun Home, there seems to be some distinct patterns in her sixth chapter “An Ideal Husband.” I will only focus on the one that stands out most to me. The way Bechdel structures this chapter, whether it be chronologically close or not, was a few examples of natural events that seemed to be plaguing the Bechdel home in almost biblical proportions.

First, it began with the locusts. If my memory serves me, I remember in the Old Testament during Moses’s chapter that he said Ramses would have consequences for not freeing the slaves, and it seemed weird to me that these temporal cicadas came and attacked the perimeter of Alison’s home.

The second almost supernatural phenomenon Bechdel mentions is the catastrophic storm that is unleashed one summer. Nothing inside their home was really touched, but the outside was destroyed. What became even stranger was the fact that the rest of the neighborhood did not get any damage, or even any effects of the storm, for that matter.

The way Bechdel presents it sounds like the forces of nature are punishing the Bechdel family for some reason, and I thought that was an interesting pattern she thought to bring up.