Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - Blog 3 "Faces"

The way that Bechdel portrays her family and herself through the facial expressions through out the novel really describes how she feels and how she sees her family. It is interesting to notice that when Bechdel is talking about her childhood and the things she was around to see, her father and mother almost always have the same exact facial expressions. They never change and they seem almost emotionless or blank. However, during flashbacks or descriptions of her parents' lives before she was born or before she can remember, their faces change. Her mother in particular is seen with multiple expressions, whether good or bad. I think this has a lot to do with Bechdel's image of her mother as an actress before she got married to her father and became emotionally blank. She even mentions this herself on page 72 when she writes, "In a passport photo taken eight years later, my mother's luminous face has gone dull." This shows how Bechdel sees her mother as an expressive human being up until being married with children for a few years. Her relationship with her husband had grown cold and passionless, while the children only picked at the scabs that were already there. In the images that display stories of the past, where Alison was either not around or not born yet, her mother is pictured with her hair down and wider, bright eyes. Although the images are in black and white you can clearly see the difference. Her father, although a less severe example, only shows emotion on his face when he is speaking to young men or also in memories or stories of the past. Bechdel never depicts him smiling in any other circumstance and his face stays pretty much static through out the rest of the novel. I think that this shows how Bechdel has viewed her parents through out her entire life. They are tired, bored with their relationship, and just going through the motions of the day. She rarely accounts for good moments between the two of them, and very few personal connections other than arguments were shown in the novel. Her father always seems unhappy, probably because he has been required to hide his true emotions his whole life.