Unknown: The Storytelling of Fun Home via McCloud
Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel Fun Home uses many of the base concepts from Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics to create a storytelling engine that imparts deeper meaning through its expression of emotion, use of iconography, and interplay between text and image. On pages 1, 15, 16, 17, and 18 of Fun Home , this engine is geared specifically towards the characterization of Bechdel’s father and his influence over and modulation of the family dynamic. Additionally, through the use of a unique point of view and a recurring theme of contrast, certain characteristics of both the father and family as a whole are expressed in an especially impactful way: we as readers are let into the world of mystique and unsolved puzzles that Bechdel has come to associate with her past. Image from Fun Home page 18. A very visible example of the effect of Bechdel’s father on the family dynamic can be found by analyzing emotional expression and how line is used to achieve it. Looking at the faces on pag