Chapter 2 of Fun Home
By: Shane Wilson
The second chapter of Fun Home contains almost no information pertaining to race, ethnicity or religion. One of the few things that is in the chapter that is even relatable to the subject would be her fathers "suicide". Technically it was not a suicide because her father had been hit by a truck, and their was no way to prove that he had actually done it too himself. Bechdel was fairly convinced that it was in fact a suicide that her father committed On page 47 in the third box down there is an underlined statement from The Myth of Sisyphus that reads, " The subject of this essay is precisely this relationship between the absurd and suicide is a solution to the absurd". Bechdel goes on to explain that this could not have been a motive for her father because he was such an in depth reader that he would have understood that the books was saying that suicide was illogical. But based on the information that we already have her father and the entire family was very religious, and as you know suicide is a large sin in the Roman Catholic community Based on that you can determine that her father did not commit suicide, he just happened to set in front of a truck and it happened to kill him. He knew that killing himself would result in non acceptance to heaven, so he basically staged a way to kill himself without it being labeled a suicide. While I was reading many references were made to an author by the name of Albert Camus, after further research (found at this link http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1957/camus-bio.html) I discovered that he was the second youngest recipient of the Noble Prize in literature. Another part that I found to be interesting was when her grandmother tells the story of her father. It shows her father in a light in which we have yet to see him. In the story he is an innocent kid who wanders off and gets stuck in the mud. So far we have seen him in a light that makes the reader not want to sympathize with him, but after this story it shows that he was not always the way he was. After reading this piece one big question I have is how much of the story of her father is still left too explain, because clearly we do not have the whole story.
Shane, I found it very interesting when you said, "He knew that killing himself would result in non acceptance to heaven, so he basically staged a way to kill himself without it being labeled a suicide." I had not really made the religious connection as to why he would choose to commit suicide in the manner that he did, but it makes sense. Even the way that Bechdel's father commits suicide demonstrates that his outward appearance is deceptive. Like you, I am very interested in finding out the true story behind him.
ReplyDelete-Amanda
Shane, I agree that there is not much in chapter 2 about our topic, but I think if you look at Bechdel's father, he shows the importance of race, ethnicity and religion in his life. His goal is to have the appearance of a typical, white, catholic, American family. I don't think he would not commit suicide because of his religion, but because he wouldn't want to appear as a bad catholic. I agree that he wouldn't want to be labeled as a suicide, but I think his reasoning solely has to do with the appearance of his death.
ReplyDelete-Jordan
Great post Shane, I find it what you wrote about suicide to be interesting because her raised them as a stereotypical WASP or Roman Catholic family would but through out what we have read so far you never see them go into church which makes me think. maybe they do not go to church because of the job at the fun home but also that might be an incentive for someone to also be religious.
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