Bincy - Coming of Age Novel

In the graphic memoir Fun Home , we see Alison Bechdel and her complicated relationship with her father, Bruce Bechdel. An aspect of the book that caught my attention from the very beginning were the expectations that Bruce places on Alison as she grows up. Bruce tries to control and shape Alison’s behavior and identity through control and criticism. But this is not simply parenting or disciplining her; I believe Bruce attempts to shape Alison's behavior and identity because HE is unable to fully express himself.  From an early age, Bruce controls how Alison presents herself AND how she should present herself. He often criticizes her appearance and pushes her to look more traditionally feminine. Alison describes her father as someone who paid close attention to appearances. This can be seen in the family home. She writes, “My father could spin garbage into gold” (Bechdel 6) highlighting his obsession with perfection and presentation. Alison, however, prefers a more masculi...

     When I first read Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy,” I was extremely shocked by its use of Nazi and Holocaust imagery to describe her relationship with her father, comparing him to a Nazi and herself to a Jewish victim. It took me some time to get over the shock and confusion of why she chose to write this way, since I had pictured Plath as a really demure, kind, and gentle lady. But as I thought about this, I decided to do a little research into her life and take a closer look at The Bell Jar and “Daddy” side by side. From The Bell Jar and the discovery of Ted Hughes’s affair with Assia Wevill, to “Daddy,” I began to see it as a layered act of revenge, or at least some kind of silent confrontation, or silent acknowledgment. It made me wonder : What if “Daddy” is not only about her father, but about the three figures who wounded her most- her father, her husband, and the woman with whom he betrayed her?      In The Bell Jar , Plath’s protagonist, Esther Gr...