Imitation of Blog

          Fun Home distinguishes itself from the other books in our unit by being a graphic novel. This opens it up to an entirely novel (hoho. haha.) dimension of expression, the visual realm. Aesthetics are very important to the core of the book: the two core characters, Alison Bechdel and her father, Bruce Bechdel, both express themselves largely aesthetically, Alison through visual art and personal styling, and Bruce through decoration of his house. This meta-parallel between the subject and medium is replicated one layer lower, through visual symbolism expressed in the panels of the graphic novel.           A fascinating visual dualism presents itself in the form of the third and the final panels of Fun Home. Both are a reference to a core analogy Bechdel makes, comparing herself to Icarus and her father to Daedelus, two figures of Greek myth. Notice the similarities. In both, Bechdel is above her father, and supported by him: in one, she is supported literally, by his legs; in th

  Esther has a troubled relationship with death. From the outset, she is seemingly most lucid, most poetic, when she discusses death, and the ancillary matters contained therein, seemingly contradictory with the intrinsic stopping, the intrinsic ending, lack of thought and reason, which comes with death. She also has a troubled relationship with electricity, a relationship which manifests itself inversely: electricity drives all lucidity from her mind. Death riding on the electric current- it is the very first thing she relates to us. Isn't it awful about the Rosenbergs?   The Death Electric bears down on Esther in one other significant instance: Dr. Gordon’s electroshock. Esther’s first experience with electroshock is one of the most immediately traumatic experiences for her in the book. It pushes her torture beyond the stifling psychological confinement of the bell jar, of New York, suburbia, womanhood, and into the dimension of raw flesh. Gordon’s electroshock tears Esther apa