Bechdel's weird family

In the book “Fun Home,” Bechdel goes into detail about the many problems that goes on in her very unique and awkward family. For example, Bechdel compares her family to the Addams family, which is a cartoon about a sort of strange family. “It was somewhere during those early years that I began confusing us with the Adams Family” Bechdel states while observing her family actions and personality.  

Bechdel’s relationship with her father was also a strange one. Bechdel’s Father (Bruce) had sort if an attachment problem with his family especially his children. Bruce spent more time on decorating his house than paying attention to his children. For example, Bechdel states, “I grew to resent the way my father treated his furniture like children, and his children like furniture.” Bechdel was showing the reader the way she felt about her father’s attachment problems. He showed more of an attachment to the material things in his house than the people he suppose to love. This problem eventually led to Bechdel resenting her father for a long time. When Bruce died, Bechdel did not have the normal reaction that a grieving daughter would have. For example, at her father’s funeral, Bechdel wondered what it would be like if people spoke the truth. She states, “There’s no mystery! He killed himself because he was a manic-depressive closeted fag and he couldn’t face living in this small-minded small town one more second.” Bechdel shows her inner feelings about her father’s death in that statement.

Bechdel wrote this book to show people how unique and weird her family was. She had a detached father who had a secret love for teenage boys; and a mother who was more interested in her master’s thesis and her play than her daughters first period. Throughout her life, Bechdel never got the love and affection that a child usually receives from their mother and father.