Use Of Ethical Codes In Alison Bechdel's Fun Home

Alison Bechdel composed Fun Home from personal memories to depict the effects of an absence of ethical codes and values during the early stages of life. In her novel, Alison portrays her parents by outlining their personalities with criticizing descriptions, next reproducing their actions through her personal reactions- exaggerating the experience to express the process in which Alison developed a personal set of values and ethical codes. Alison Bechdel appears to describe her family’s ethical code as an idea that leans further toward the side of no code than toward the side of a one. An ethical code is an agreement with a second individual that is constructed by trust, honesty, equality, and individual rights. However, the type of ethical

Alison’s father, Bruce Bechdel, conceals his sexual identity to the extent that it becomes “simultaneously hidden and reveal[ing]” from his children until they ultimately discover it on their own (101). This form of dishonesty not only destroys the relationship between Alison and Bruce, but it also sparks a sense of sexual curiosity in her. The discovery of Bruce’s sexual identification ignites Alison’s interest in the duplicate gender, which later leads to a switch from heterosexuality to homosexuality. An additional crushing disappointment toward the construction of an ethical code remains to be the enforcement of female fashion forced upon Alison by Bruce throughout her adolescent years. This act of abusive power brings Alison to consider the inequality in her family’s hierarchy; thereby initiating the lack of positive attributes to build an ethical code between the family members. Deprived of a family ethical code, the Bechdel’s household becomes a

Although Alison Bechdel does not provide the reader with a list of characteristics of each family member, she does illustrate the attributes of the member’s disposition throughout the novel. Alison begins describing her family’s personas with the primary villain in her childhood, her father, as someone who is educated, cares highly of appearance, and “treat[s] his furniture like children, and his children like furniture” (14). She then describes her mother, Helen Bechdel, as being loyal, cowardly, and non-motherly, while Alison describes herself as passionate, courageous, and open-minded. Alison’s father values the appearance of the family, i.e. recent fashion styles and elaborate house decorations; however while Helen also values the family’s appearance, she demonstrates this by refusing to divorce Bruce after discovering his factual sexual identity is homosexual and his recent affair with the Bechdel’s babysitter. Bruce and Helen are both individuals consumed in social norms before they are parents, which forces Alison to believe that she is the “comic relief in [her] parents’ tragedy” (58). The massive amount of attention to appearance by both of Alison’s parents averts her from living her childhood in creative curiosity. Thus, it also prevents her from having the individual freedoms necessary in a traditional ethical