Looking into Bruce Bechdel

 




    In the book Fun Home, we go over the life of Alison Bechdel and the life of her family. Mainly being Alison's father. What makes Fun very different from what most of the coming of age novels that we are reading, is that fact that the protagonist "Alison Bechdel" is actual the real Alison Bechdel. While most of the other coming of age books have protagonists that are not the real authors, but they have similar experiences to the authors. That detail I always though was interesting and cool about the book. Back to the book, I think that Alisons dad (the person we mainly focus on throughout the novel) is one of the most complex and interesting characters in the story. Furthermore, one of the most important pages in the book reflects on Bruce's decisions, and adds a lot more to his character. All it took was just two pages. In this blog post I am going to talk about mainly the roy picture as well as talk about the information we learn about Bruce Bechdel.

    I want to first talk about the depiction of the roy picture in the novel. We can see from Alison's depiction of the image, her fathers skill in getting the right position. Alison says and I quote: "The Blurriness of the photo gives it an ethereal, painterly quality. Roy is gilded with morning seaside light. His hair is an aureole. In fact, the picture is beautiful. As most of us know since we read the novel, Bruce Bechdel was a man who is gay but he is closeted. While the picture is "beautiful", it is also real disturbing since we learned about Bruce being a closeted gay person and the picture of and almost nude 17 year old Roy doesn't give us the most reassuring thoughts in our heads. The very interesting part of this picture is that the pages of this picture are right in the middle of the book. In addition, it takes 2 pages, no other image in this book two pages. It is like Alison Bechdel is shoving it into our faces, trying to make us at it. What is even more interesting is that normally a picture that is this disturbing, well me personally I wouldn't share it with the public. 

    This section won't be a long as the last, but I want to continue with a bit of the description that Alison gave. I want focus predominantly on this part I quote: "But would I be assessing its aesthetic merits so calmly if it were of a seventeen-year-old girl? why am I not properly outraged. When reading this part of the description that Alison gave, I had two thoughts on why she was not completely outraged. The first reason why is because, she has some sympathy for her father and she kinda off understands why he did this. She understands the situation of living in a place that is very Homophobic. Like Alison says in the end of the novel. It is a failed "Hero's Journey", Bruce was about to leave his hometown and then he came right back and was closeted. While Alison was able to come out as a Lesbian. My second thought was more a social thing, and it is a social idea that is still here to this day. It is that men getting sexually assaulted is seen as less of a big deal than women getting sexually assaulted. It is unfortunate, since most men who get sexually assaulted don't speak out because of the embarrassment and social norms. 

I don't really know how to conclude such a very heavy and very disturbing scene in this book. I think just overall, this was one of the most heavy but also the most important scene in the book. It honestly leaves you with more questions than answers. I guess to conclude, the scene just shines a whole new light on Bruce. I mostly feel upset by this picture, but, I do feel a bit of sympathy understanding the pressure that Alison's father had to go though.



Comments

  1. MichaelApril 5, 2026 at 8:41 AM

    Hello Amari,
    I enjoyed this analysis of arguably the most important frame of the entire novel. I always found it interesting that even when the book is closed, you can still see the colors from this two-page spread in between the rest of the white pages. I think that everything about this frame encapsulates Bruce as a character, his struggles, his hidden life, and his secrecy. It's interesting to see Alison attempt to wrap her head around this picture. I would imagine that every time she thinks about Bruce's life, this image comes to mind for her. And, like you mentioned, there is also a second message about gender norms that adds a whole other layer of complexity to the image.

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  2. Lucas T.April 6, 2026 at 10:25 AM

    Hey Amari! I enjoy looking at other people's views on how this scene morally "felt" to them. I do understand your sympathy towards Bruce, as living in such a homophobic and repressive time while closeted must have been torturous daily, but I would argue that there are plenty of other ways to express homosexual desires than with Roy. Obviously, the very fact that he is in a marriage with Helen while pursuing men is wrong, but with that, preying on minors, especially the unconsenting, goes beyond repressed sexuality itself. Overall, this blog allowed me to further process my view on this scene, so I appreciate this post!

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  3. ElliotthegreatApril 6, 2026 at 3:54 PM

    Hey Omarion Dickens, I really enjoyed your analysis on the most pivotal photo of the novel. When I look at this picture it really does highlight to me Bruce's closeted identity as the photo of Roy gives this eerie look, almost like that of a shadow that's meant to be concealed from the lighted outline of Roy's body which is meant to symbolize Bruce's outside, fake "identity" that he chooses to show the world. Great Job!

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  4. LenaApril 6, 2026 at 8:33 PM

    Hi Amari! I completely agree that one of the things that stands out the most about this picture is the way Bruce captures him. I think a really interesting comparison would be the photos Bruce takes of his family. In the family photos, Bruce controls the way his family is dressed and made-up. He poses them and stages the photo to appear as the perfect, innocent family. In contrast, the photo Bruce takes of Roy is dramatic, vulnerable, and evocative. In a way, I think this contrast represents the contrast between Bruce's artificial, performative personality, and his raw, true self. Great job!

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  5. MitchellApril 8, 2026 at 12:19 PM

    I agree that this book has a unique kind of nonfictional immediacy in the way that the protagonist/narrator is "Alison Bechdel," clearly the person who is also writing the book. I'd add that it's maybe even more complicated to ponder that *Bruce Bechdel* is also a real person, whose real name is used. We can assume that the depiction of his obelisk gravestone is accurate, and that if we were to travel to Beech Creek today, we could locate it. And the questions around her depiction of Bruce are maybe more sticky than the questions around her depicting herself: she reveals a LOT about her father that he would not have chosen to reveal during his life (as far as we can tell), including public things like court records and obituaries but also private things like his personal photographs, the letters he wrote to Helen, and even his private correspondence with Alison. We have to assume Bruce would be quite upset if he were to know this book exists--although maybe he'd like the idea of an actor portraying him on stage winning a Tony award.

    The questions that Bechdel the author leaves hanging on this two-page spread of Bruce's private photo of Roy indeed linger after we finish the novel, and I don't think they CAN be answered. Is it wrong for Bechdel to downplay these relationships Bruce engaged in? WOULD she be reacting differently if her father had victimized girls in his classes? She draws Roy as looking not like a young boy but like a man, and she makes him seem physically larger and stronger than Bruce, and he always appears to be fully comfortable hanging out with the kids, or sipping a beer on Bruce's porch, or hanging out in his library taking home a new book recommendation. The fact is, Bechdel does not remain neutral on this question she asks--her rendition of Roy within the book DOES seem to "excuse" her father's actions, implicitly, but not depicting Roy as a victim. This would be the only way she could see "beauty" in that photo.

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  6. Ashton R.H's Blog!April 9, 2026 at 9:41 AM

    I definitely agree that the image of Roy is such a critical point in the novel. I really think this image is when Alison really processes her complex relationship with her father, even questioning if she'd be less passive if it featured an underage girl instead. I think its kinda that pivotal moment where kids realize their parents are regular adults and unfortunately often kinda crappy people. This also shows us Bruce's view of his gay relationships, hidden and unclear. And its so interesting to me that the predatory nature of this image is contrasted with the image of his own kids in the same envelope. In a way its almost self awareness of how screwed up his preying on Roy truly was, because like his own children, Roy was just a vulnerable kid. (Also relates to that one scene of Alisons brother encountering a predatory man and running back to the hotel, only for Bruce to try and brush over it.)

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