Characterizations in Fun Home

Post by Sarah H

Alison Bechdel:
Alison is the story’s protagonist, as well as the author and illustrator of the memoir. She is the Child of Bruce and Helen Bechdel. She was born in 1960, and she grew up in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania. As the narrator of the memoir, many of the stories told are of her life, and from her personal perspective. She also tells stories, for which she wasn’t present, including tales from her father and mother’s life before they had children.
In the memoir, Alison reflects on her childhood and her adolescence, up until and shortly beyond, the time when her father dies, when Alison is 20 years old. Alison is a tomboy and enjoys wearing boys' clothing and is attracted to all things masculine. She sees herself as the mirror image of her father, who tends to be attracted to stereotypically feminine pursuits. Alison suffers from OCD in her early adolescence and must complete complicated rituals in her daily life. She keeps a diary in which she truthfully records the events of her life.
In College, Alison comes out as a lesbian to her parents. She becomes involved in LGBTQ politics at her college and becomes involved with her first girlfriend Joan. She comes to understand (and learns from her mother) about her father’s sexuality. In Fun Home, Alison explores her complicated relationship with her father, whom she believes she is both alike and completely different from.



Alison at her father’s funeral (age 20)

Bruce Bechdel:
Bruce Bechdel was born in 1936 and died in 1980. He was Alison Bechdel’s father. Bruce was born, grew up, and died in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania. He was a high school English Teacher and had a great love of literature; he was especially passionate about F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce. When Alison was in high school and college, she and Bruce bonded over their mutual love of literature. Bruce was also the local funeral director. He took over the funeral home business when his father died.
Bruce was a complicated man. He was described as manic-depressive by his daughter, Alison. Bruce was an exacting taskmaster who demanded perfection from his family, and he sometimes terrorized his children. He was not physically affectionate to his family, but Alison says, “His bursts of kindness were as incandescent and his tantrums were dark” (Bechdel, 2006, p. 21). Bruce was a closeted homosexual man who secretly engaged in extra-marital sexual relationships with teenage boys. He held a great deal of shame for his secret lifestyle, once telling Alison that “I’m bad. Not good like you” (p. 153).
Bruce had a talent for historical restoration, making their family home into a “museum.” Alison observed that “My Father could spin garbage...into gold” (p. 6). Bruce was also a passionate gardener and had a great love for flowers, especially lilacs. Alison believes that her father committed suicide by stepping into the road in front of a truck when he was gardening. Two weeks before, Alison’s mother had asked for a divorce. Alison's mother could no longer accept their sham of a marriage.


Michael Cerveris, who played Bruce Bechdel in the Broadway production of Fun Home, speaks about becoming the character.


Helen Bechdel:
Helen Bechdel was born in 1933 and died in 2013. Helen is Alison Bechdel’s mother and the wife of Bruce Bechdel. Bruce and Helen met in a production of Taming of the Shrew in which Helen played the lead, Katherine. Helen was a talented actress who lived in New York for a time and aspired to become a professional actress. After corresponding with Bruce while he was in the army in Europe, Helen decided to join him there, and they were married. This essentially ends Helen’s dream of being a Broadway actress. The couple is forced to return to Beech Creek when Bruce’s father becomes ill, and Bruce is needed to help run the funeral home. Helen continues to act in community theatre productions in Beech Creek.
Alison states, “If my father was a Fitzgerald character, my Mother stepped right out of Henry James--A vigorous American Idealist ensnared by degenerate continental forces” (p. 66). Alison comments that 8 years into her parent’s marriage, “...my Mother’s luminous face and gone dull” (p. 72). Helen bore with her husband’s volatility, homosexuality, and infidelities until Alison was 20. She told Alison, while Alison was at college, that she couldn’t take it anymore. Helen asked Bruce for a divorce; Bruce was hit by a truck two weeks later.

Above: Judy Kuhn speaking about playing Helen, in the Broadway Production of Fun Home.

Joan:
Joan is Alison’s first girlfriend. She is a feminist and poet. She and Alison met in college. Alison has a glass eye from a childhood accident. Alison and Joan were living together in the summer that Alison’s father dies.


Roy:
Roy was Alison’s and her brothers’ babysitter. He was also a former student of Bruce Bechdel’s and one of Bruce’s lovers.


John & Christian Bechdel:
They are Alison’s brothers. John and Alison share grins when they meet each other for the first time after their father dies. Alison gives little insight into her brothers' characters. Below, we see Alison and her brothers John & Christian at their father's funeral.



Alison Bechdel fleshes out her main characters in her graphic novel, Fun Home, through her descriptive storytelling and her illustrations, that accurately depict the appearance of all the characters in her story. Through her use of literary allusions, Alison is further able to illuminate the characters of her father, Bruce, and her mother, Helen.


Sources Consulted
Bechdel, A. (2006). Fun home: a family tragicomic. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Broadwaycom. (2015). Character study: Judy Kehn. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CATkTOshnkA&list=WL&index=82&t=0s.

Broadwaycom. (2016). Character study: Michael Cerveris. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5n0stTaNEw&list=WL&index=74.

Post Created by Sarah H