Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother

In Alison Bechdel’s, Are You My Mother?, the reader is exposed to her internal struggles as she writes her mother’s memoir. The author uses both graphics and her dialogue to relate her story with her literary inspirations. The author uses many repeated images to display the relationship One image that stands out is that of Alison crying as the real image of who she is. This is a repeating image as she is trying to discover her true self. For me, my aha moment was in this moment. In this moment, on page, 234. On the black paper, the reader sees Alison crying at her desk. Her dead is leaning on the edge of the desk, as her face is open with regret and frustration. This is at the bottom of the page, and started with the words “When I look, I

Some of the questions that arise are, why is Alison stuck in this basement? Why is she seeing a therapist? The reader soon learns that Alison and her mother have a very unique relationship, but the question of whether it is a healthy relationship comes up. Alison is attached to her mother in a way that she both mimics her mother’s behavior but also outwardly rejects it. For example, in the first chapter, Alison says she records and transcribes the things that her mom says during phone calls like her mother had once done for her. Her mother used to write down everything Alison said in her own journal. On the other hand, Alison rejects the things that her mother does like when her mother neglected to comment on Alison’s work. She merely commented on a few stylistic elements and neglected to comment on the content matter of her work. In their own personal calls, Alison’s mother would continuously talk about herself and only ask Alison how she was every so often. These relationship characteristics demonstrated a very convoluated relationship between the two as it's hard to determine for the reader if the relationship is appropriate. Many times the reader feels sympathy for Alison, while other times the reader is conflicted with empathy for the