When asked to link a text to Fun Home I immediately thought of Cereus Blooms at Night. I did not realize how many themes the two books shared until I thought about the different reading and text we have accumulated over the semester, and realized that those two shared a great deal of things in common.
In both Cereus Blooms at Night and Fun Home the main characters fathers are emotionally disconnected in their lives. In Cereus Blooms at Night Asha and Mala’s mother abandons them to be with another woman, a woman who they considered to be their aunt. Due to their mothers sudden leave of absence their father takes out his anger and sexual frustration on the two girls. In Fun Home Bruce Bechdel is emotionally unattached from his family. He is very distant from his family, which he expresses in silence, coldness, and occasional abusive tempers. Alison’s father was also a closeted homosexual, keeping up relations with some of his high school students. Alison’s father and Mala and Asha’s father remind a lot of each other, they are both absorbed in their own lives, misery, and insecurities that they neglect and take their problems out on their children.
Tyler and Alison share a similar struggle with their sexual identity. In fun home I feel like Alison struggles with coming to terms with who she is along with Tyler who was a lost soul up until the end of the book. In both books Tyler and Alison also look to others to help complete and figure out the story of who they are. Alison who shares more in common with her dad than she thinks and Tyler who looks to Miss Ramchandin’s story in search for his own.
Do you think Mala would be able to reflect back on her father in a similar way as Alison Bechdel does in Fun home?
Obviously the content would be very differently, but I wonder how Mala would have told her fathers story.
I thought it was very interesting how you connected the use of family in both of these novels. I think that you could delve more into how our families (in this case, fathers) help to shape our own identity. Do we end up like our parents because they raised us or do we rebel and become opposites? There are definitely themes of family influence in Fun Home and I’m sure you could find passages from Cereus Blooms that show how having an abusive father/absent mother influenced Mala.
I also agree with the comment above me, that Mala might tell the story differently than Tyler. What does that say, then, that an outsiders perspective is different than one from someone who was in the middle of that family?
I do see the connections between the fathers! How do you think that Mala would tell her fathers point of view? Both men are disconnected for sure but Alison is the lesser by far.