Fun Home

Fun Home is a characterized as a tragicomic. I think this is very fitting since it is illustrated as though it were a comic book, but has very intense subject material. There is a direct contrast between the comic-like illustrations which to me have the connotation of humor and the actual text with its darker message. I think this illustrates the dichotomous nature of the narrator's memories. The novel is written as a memoir, the narrator is looking back on her life, seeing both the happy aspects of childhood and the dark nature of her father’s suppression of his homosexuality and the effect it has on her family. This is illustrated through the contrast between the comic style and the writing.

An interesting theme that I’ve picked up is one of isolation, yet at the same time connectedness. This is recurrent throughout the novel. Although the narrator is isolated from her father because of his secrets and struggles with his sexual identification, she at the same time is inexorably connected to him because she is also gay. In this illustration the reader sees the disconnectedness within the family. Nobody is interacting; they are all in their own private spheres. The narrator seated in the middle, however, appears to be trying to bridge the gap. She is simultaneously leaning closer to her parents yet also looking away. This depicts her desire to connect, yet at the same time her inability to completely bridge the barriers separating them.