New Home and the last few graphic essays have been the first comic style stories I've ever really read. The more I read the more I like this style. You get a much deeper look into the mind of the author and new messages are revealed through the illustrations combined with the captions.
The first chapter of New Home focuses mostly on the home life of the main character (Alison Bechdel) and her family, mainly her father. This first chapter doesn't focus too much on race, ethnicity and religion, but it focuses a lot on the importance of outside appearance, which can relate directly to these. Bechdel stresses throughout the chapter how obsessed her father is with the appearance of their home. He has a great talent with his hands and a knack for design. She compares her father to Daedalus, the father of Icarus, who flew to close to the sun. Like Daedalus, Bechdel's is a master engineer. However, her father is expressed as a slightly different version of Daedalus. Her father is taken over by his version of the wax wings, his house. She speaks of this on page 12 when she says "Then there are those wax wings. Was Daedalus really stricken with grief when Icarus fell into the sea? Or just disappointed with the design failure?"(12). This refers to her father and stresses once again his care for his home and seemingly lack of care for his family. On page 13 this idea is brought up again. "Or at least , the air of authenticity we lent to his exhibit. A sort of still life with children" (13). This shows how her father views the family not as the people he loves, but the people who live in the home that he built. He is obsessed with the appearance of his family and his life. "He used his skillful artifice not to make things, but to make things appear to be what they were not" (16). This quote can directly relate to outside appearance and the desire of her father to appear as the ideal, white American family. Anything else is unacceptable. Often times, children grow up to be similar to their parents.A question I have for this chapter is will Bechdel grow up to be similar to her father, or strive for difference because of the way she views her father?
-Jordan
Jordan, i really like what you wrote. i think that if we knew the ethnicity's of the main character we would know a little more about them. like if they were greek we would understand why the house might have some of those designs on it. also, if we knew the ethnicity's we might learn of why their father seems to be distant or why he raises his kids the way he does.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is pretty clear from the first chapter that Bechdel's father is a homosexual, which may explain him being "distant" to his family as Alex says. This is why there is such an emphasis on appearances, since her father outwardly tries to portray himself as a straight man. The first chapter does touch on religion, because on page 17, the family is in church. The caption for this picture is, "He appeared to be an ideal husband and father, for example. But would an ideal husband and father have sex with teenage boys?" This book is a memoir, and Bechdel grew up Roman Catholic, so we know that this is in a Catholic church. Homosexuality is a sin within the Catholic church, which further tells us that the father is living a lie. We learn at the end of the chapter that the father commits suicide, which is another sin.
ReplyDelete-Amanda
I like how you talked about appearance in your overview of the chapter and how that effects the way one operates. I would have added a little something about religion though. Like Amanda touched on Bechdel is very religious, and how Bechdel expressed her fathers homosexuality when she talks about how her dad slept with teenage boys I believe. Race kind of plays a factor but to say anything about it makes you seem like a racist. You don't want to say that no minority would buy a old victorian mansion and fix it up, but there is a strong chance that a caucasian family is more likely to do so.
ReplyDeleteI also like reading graphic novels and this is really the first one I've read but it paints a picture to the story that words can't really describe. Race doesn't seem like it is going to be much of an issue in this book, but like you said, outside appearence seems like it will be a very large issue and that is relatable to race in that her dad wants to look different on the outside, maybe to cover up for something.
ReplyDeleteNick