Color in Fun Home
One of the very first things I noticed when I started reading Fun Home was Bechdel's grey and blue tone color palette. I was quite curious why she made the choice to draw her book in such a limited color scheme. Especially when she was describing her childhood home that her father decorated, she depicted all the rich colors he chose, but never showed us. It seemed to me that using color would have been the perfect way to "show not tell" what her home and childhood looked like. When I reached chapter 5 and read through the scene where Bechdel's dad colors her coloring book because he thinks she is coloring it wrong (pages 130 and 131), it became much clearer as to why she doesn't use color. All through the book we saw the clear contrasting dynamic between Alison and her father. Alison is the hero; her father is the anti-hero. As Alison herself puts it, she's the butch to his nelly, utilitarian to his aesthete. They've always clashed with each other and now...