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Flowers

One of my favorite chapters in Fun Home is Chapter 4, since we get to learn more about both Alison and Bruce. In particular, I really liked the first half of the chapter and its theme of flowers. Alison says that out of all the weird things that her father did around the house, the thing she disliked the most was how he loved flowers and that it made him a “sissy”. Alison would also begin to quote and talk about Marcel Proust (who I had to kinda look into). Later into the chapter, we get to see Alison’s love for a cowboy show and how her cousins thought of her as tomboy-ish. What made me really love this segment is the relationship both characters have to femininity and masculinity. Bruce is shown through Alison’s eyes as not being a very masculine person but rather someone who appreciates more traditionally feminine things, such as flowers. Alison doesn’t like this probably because of societal-influenced ideas of masculinity and what it means to be a father. On the flip side, Alison t...
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Esther's Mirrors

Esther Greenwood doesn’t have a fun time with mirrors. I only began to notice the significance of mirrors in this story after it was briefly brought up in class and I thought the symbolism behind them was really interesting. The first time we encounter a mirror in the story is during the chapter where Esther is given shock treatment by Dr. Gordon. Throughout the book, we see her starting to become increasingly disassociated with both her physical and mental state. I think a great way to represent this is through the medium of mirrors since they’re locations of self reflection. Rather than physical reflection, these mirrors mostly mean to represent and showcase the issues that Esther struggles with. What makes Esther’s reflection sadder is that she doesn’t recognize it’s herself but rather thinks it’s someone else. It’s terribly sad to imagine that feeling of losing sense of self and especially after a traumatic experience. Her experience with mirrors only seems to get worse as after sh...
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Phoebe Caulfield is Cool

As a kid I loved museums because I really loved learning about the past but I never thought of museums in the way Holden Caulfield does. Viewing exhibits as frozen in time and idealizing the past are a significant force in this story and is why I loved the character of Phoebe. Phoebe isn’t like Holden at all; she doesn’t idealize childhood and wants Holden to grow up. Rather than sympathizing with Holden, she sympathizes with us as readers and gives us an outside perspective of Holden. She breaks away from Holden’s talk about the phoniness of the adult world and lets us know that growing up is okay and necessary. Additionally as readers, we start to understand that Holden’s feelings towards the outside world may not be entirely directed at the outside world, but rather himself. I know we mentioned it alot through class discussions but Holden has trouble dealing with his feelings and coping with the loss of Allie. He’s most likely depressed and longs for human connection, but also pus...
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