Fun Home by Alison Bechdel is a groundbreaking piece of literature where audiences are able to experience an autobiographical piece unlike any other. Through the illustrations in this graphic novel and the very human words and concepts Bechdel discusses, she is able to express her struggles with family dynamics, her father's secrecy, coming out, and life as a woman and lesbian. Throughout the piece, Bechdel covers many different themes and concepts, some of which revolve around the typically heavy and delicate theme of death. However, when discussed by Bechdel, death is a routine thing, something to even joke about. Bechdel and his peers even call the funeral home down the street where his grandmother and father work "Fun Home." Christian W. Schneider connects all of these ideas to their ties to the Gothic themes presented in “Fun Home” itself through the graphic novel in the article “Young Daughter, Old Artificer: Constructing the Gothic Fun Home.” For Bechdel, death is an absurd concept, very similar to life when described by Camus, as well as simply an absolutely ridiculous concept and therefore something not to be afraid of or considered as a taboo conversation, but rather something to be discussed or even joke. from time to time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Bechdel spent her childhood and early adulthood discussing death as a joke (mostly because her father was an undertaker), "visiting gravediggers, joking with burial vault salesmen, and teasing [her] brothers with crushed vials of smelling salts” as part of the routine of life (50), However, after losing her father, she discovers that that very mindset is what made her so unable to grasp the reality of her father's death, trying anyway. to be light and funny about it by consoling herself with questions like “who embalms the undertaker when he dies?” (51), but finding herself nothing but irritated by his passing This is where the true absurdity of death is depicted: what could be more absurd , ridiculous and senseless of something that is absolutely incomprehensible to those who experience it closest in their daily lives? Does Alison's irritation make her experience even more human and absurd? As discussed in Christian Schneider's article, she spends her life “trying to escape the secrets and lies that ultimately prove to be her father's death, as their power over her life still remains” (7). Alison proves absurd to herself, as the more she tries to escape the effect of her father's death on her life, the more power death has over her life. This paradox is as ridiculous as the aforementioned death exposure paradox which causes more confusion when actually addressed. In all reality, the absurdity of death is all based on its absolute paradox. Bechdel, even when she is conflicted about her father's death, handles death very well because she understands that it is absurd. Not only does he believe that "death is intrinsically absurd...in the sense of ridiculous [and] unreasonable," but he also considers death to be absurd "through Camus's definition of the absurd: that the universe is irrational and human life deprives of meaning" (47). In this definition of the absurd (as shown in the absurdist school of thought that extends to existentialism and nihilism), one can see the simple link of Bechdel's thoughts on life with his thoughts on death. Bechdel never demonstrates a need, a search, or a belief in an innate purpose and sees life as absurd and devoid of logic, especially when learning the.