Fun Home

 
                                  What makes Bruce such an Anti-hero?
                                 Made by: Emperor Zig-Zag-Zig Elliot

                While I was trying to think of what I could write for this blog on Fun Home, I remembered a particular prompt on this blog that I think could work for this as there are strong contrasts that I had with this question on whether or not Bruce was an Antihero. It's hard to like at Bruce as a hero as he does not present any characteristics that would make you think "Oh, you see he was a good guy all the time".  However, he does have the backstory that would make you think so since he was molested by a man who was much older than him when he was only a child. On top of all that, he had to deal with keeping himself in the closet, not being able to fully be "free", out of fear of people looking at him in a different way. Because of this, he choose to shun the trait that I believed would have made him more "energetic" as a person. However, he would choose to live a life that hid his true identity, by marrying a woman and having a family, believing that it was the safest approach. Once he had that family, he wished to present them as the most "normal" family, almost like the Brady Bunch with not a single semblance of "difference" from others with some examples being him dictating how Alison should be dressed more feminine with dresses and having a pink colored room. Ironically this "heroic" or more so sympathetic backstory is what would turn him to do villainous acts, given that he would have extramarital affairs with young men, as well as even soliciting alcohol to a minor which would get him in trouble with the law. He almost reminds me of Papa Eugene from the book Purple Hibiscus in regards to his family life. He chooses to dictate their every move, trying to paint them as the perfect family with no problems. As a result of this controlling, at times abusive behavior, it's caused his wife to stay quiet, having a depressed attitude in comparison to how she was before they married where she was most likely more lively as a person but that was never disclosed in Purple Hibiscus. His children would also be just as quiet, to me Alison herself shares a similarity to that of Kambili (one of Eugene's children if you didn't know). Similarly in Fun Home Bruce would treat his family like that with his wife being much more depressed, however there is a difference in their children. While Bruce did dictate what they could have, the children were far more "happier" in comparison to Kambili and Jaja. In how I think Alison Bechdel and Kambili are similar is how they have far more of a heroic backstory, in the beginning they start off as more "quiet" but as they grew, they became far more "free", finding their own identity, which was not something their fathers could do (At least for Bruce). The difference here though is that Bruce was far more supporting of his daughter finding her own identity, being something that he was never able to do which does make him a better father in comparison to Papa Eugene who would have despised what Kambili would have became had he lived.