Clara's Coming of Age Comments

  Bruce Bechdel and his relationship with his daughter, Alison Bechdel– is the main focal point of Fun Home– written by Alison. While Bruce’s life story and Alison’s, as well as the similarities and differences between them, are the most prevalent thread in the novel, the other members of Alison’s family (her mother and brothers) fall to the wayside. However, I think the limited information we learn about Alison’s mother actually represents one of the biggest themes in the book.  The mother is an actor, and was highly invested in it during college (in fact, she met Bruce during a college production of Taming of the Shrew ). During the summer of Nixon’s resignation, the novel follows the mother learning her role for an Oscar Wilde play. She dedicates her entire being to inhabiting the part, described by Alison as becoming an “empty shell” in the process. Because her life is consumed by the play and she loses herself in it, she does incredibly well in the performances. That moti...

  A main cause of Esther’s depression is her feeling of being trapped. Even the title of the book alludes to it; She lives under a bell jar, where the rest of the world is monstrously obscured and out of reach, and she’s stuck in her own cloud of emotions. Only after she undergoes therapy with Dr. Nolan does Esther start to feel the bell jar lift and her freedom return to her, yet she still fears the bell jar will trap her again without warning.  I think the concept of the bell jar isn’t just related to depression or mental illness. The isolation she experiences is also a result of her identifying as a woman. Throughout the novel, Esther feels severely discontented with her prospects that pertain to her gender. She is a highly successful student and earns many scholarships, one of which is a New York program that we first meet Esther in. However, in this special scholarship opportunity with other hardworking young women, they are still patronized by the people around them, whi...