Purpose of Fun Home

I choose to write this blog on one of discussion questions from class, “Why did Alison choose to write this particular book and why did she choose to write the book as a graphic novel?”

As a young girl, around the age of nine or ten Alison began a journal which basically was about her life, her relationship with her father, and as well as the other members of her family. I believe that for Alison writing and drawing out her life was a way of release. It is as if writing this was a way for her to let her feeling out that have been bottled up for years about her father as well as her family. Maybe in a way she felt a sense of freedom, freedom from her past life. As you read through her book, it is clear that she did not have the best childhood or teenage years, it was not until her father was gone that she began to feel a sense of relief. Also maybe it was a way to help her better understand her father and maybe what he went through or even just why the way he was. But why did she choose to write a graphic novel? One of my classmates talked about how her book would have been better or more emotional if the pictures were not there. I would have to agree with my classmate, I felt that this particular book would have greater emotion and a better understanding if the pictures were not there. I mean the some the pictures were useful in helping with understanding what Alison was going through, but without them the book might have been a bit more relatable. It was just too much to read and the pictures took a lot of attention off the writing and I began to focus more on captions. However the book was written and Alison did what she wanted to do, write and tell her story. In the end Alison felt the need to tell her story with hopes that it would release her from her years of bad memories.