Fun Home Lesson Plan

Why is literature so important to the Bechdel family?

Literature seems to provide a means of imaginative resonance and escape. Both Alison's parents imagined romantic lives that, for multiple reasons, they could not actually have; literature seemed to keep them connected to that sense of the world. It also keeps them separate from each other, something that all members of the family—at least, Bruce, Helen, and Alison, as described—seem at a certain level to want, or to use to keep themselves safe. Bruce disappears into his library and uses it for seduction, which separates him from his family; Helen is deeply involved with plays; Alison uses literature as the catalyst of her...