| Life After Death: Posthumous Narrative in Maus and Fun Home |
| Written by LC | Tuesday, 10 February 2009 22:25 | |||
 Conflict between fathers and sons has been a subject in literature since Greek mythology, and Maus and Fun Home carry on that tradition in a uniquely 20th-century way. The blend of maturation and self-identification with contemporary political issues in these works creates an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty that their characters are constantly engaged with. Ultimately, the personal growth of Artie and Alison is inextricably tied to their relationships with their controlling and distant fathers, and their fathers' deaths are momentous events in their personal narratives. Hence, Maus and Fun House suggest that it is impossible for fathers and sons in unhealthy relationships to relate because their connections to each other can only be viewed objectively in a posthumous sense.Joyce's Ulysses is one of the main subjects of Fun Home's longest chapter, and its identification as “[Alison's] father's favorite book of all time” (203) lends to its significance. Alison's commentary on this book primarily concerns a distinction between “physical” fathers and “spiritual” fathers, as the dictionary's definition of a father as being “a man who has begotten a child” only “conveys vagueness and distance” for her (197) that seems to relate to the lack of connection Alison feels for her father throughout much of the book. However, when her professor asks, in regards to Ulysses, “Now if one of Joyce's themes is paternity, then why is the story about Stephen and Bloom, who are virtual strangers, and not about Stephen's actual, physical father?” (206) the context of Fun Home places Alison outsid  e of the Stephen-Bloom homosocial connection because her father is both an “actual, physical father” and is presented as a “virtual stranger.” Rather, the “spiritual” father-son connection that a student points out applies more towards the the sexualized and intellectual relationships that Bruce has with teenage boys, and Roy's (100-101) and Bill's (110) inclusion in family trips cements their familial relationships even as Bruce's real family is neglected. As such, paternal relationships are presented in the book as the result of conscious choices and attitudes rather than anything intrinsic or technical. Bruce's interaction with his family is portrayed as merely a function of his attempt at sustaining normalcy, and his detachment is clearly expressed in the first and last pages of the book where he exhibits no emotion when he plays with his daughter. Alison explains that Bruce “appeared to be an ideal husband and father” (17), and suggests that his family was just “his exhibit” (13) while his real concerns were with decorating, gardening, and his homosexual relationships. In an alternative manner, Artie could be considered the “actual” son while Richieu is the “spiritual” son, in the sense that Artie exists in reality while Richieu only exists in memory and photographs. This division allows Vladek to construct his family emotionally, as he has the cognizant power to conceptualize Richieu's potential existence in any way he chooses (which is, inevitably, as impossibly ideal). Bruce's relationships are more tangible since he identifies with “actual” children, but he still has that all-important factor of choice in regards to which teenager he wants to pick up next. These choices of his blatantly affect the way Bruce interacts with his kids, as he takes the family to the beach because of the sensitive Roy and camping because of the rugged Bill (110) without expressing any concern for the preferences of his “actual” children. However, it is problematic to strictly compare Bruce's “spiritual” children to his “actual” ones, because the sexual nature of the relationships exceed the boundaries of paternalism and enter into direct competition with the role of Helen, Bruce's spouse. As such, these romances with boys simultaneously fill the roles of both child and spouse in Bruce's life, existing as an entirely separate family unit to the one Alison is involved with. This explains why Helen is never present on any family trips, as her presence would serve no function for Bruce; his male lovers satisfy his sexual/spousal desire, and his “actual” children are sufficient “evidence” of heterosexuality. These conflicts between the roles in Bruce's family/s show that it is impossible to simultaneously maintain two distinct family units in a healthy manner, as both his heterosexual and homosexual families are damaged and dysfunctional because of his behavior. The reason I describe Bruce's homosexual affairs as being harmful is because they are illegal, temporary, taboo, adulterous, and secret, and so it is expected that they will be psychologically damaging to some extent (especially since it would be extremely uncomfortable in a social context for the teenagers to be open about what they did, and this silence would lead to some of the same problems Bruce has with being closeted). The competition between “actual” and “spiritual” children inevitably played a role in the neglect and inferiority experienced by the sons in relation to the rejection they express outwardly.Both Alison's and Artie's problems concerning connecting with their fathers are related to the absence of their mothers as both a shared bond and a source of emotional comfort, although not exactly in the same ways. There is a direct correlation in the books between the lack of emotion expressed between parents and expressed to their children. Emotional detachment is exemplified in these instances as a necessary survival tactic, especially in the “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” comic in Maus I. This comic presents Vladek as being much more emotional than he is in the rest of the book, and it appears that after the shock  of Anja's suicide he managed to deal with it with the same distancing that got him through the Holocaust. Artie exhibits a similar detachment, explaining that when his mother approached him for affection, he “turned away, resentful of the way she tightened the umbilical cord” (103). There is no narrative in the book depicting the time between Vladek and Anja's reunion in Sosnowiec and Anja's suicide, with the exception of the opening pages of Maus I, set in 1958, where Vladek does not show any concern or affection for Artie's childhood problems. Artie describes his parents' relationship on page 130 of Maus I, though, when he explains that “Whenever I needed school supplies or new clothes Mom would have to plead and argue for weeks before he'd cough up any dough!” It can be presumed, then, that Vladek was not particularly affectionate towards Anja, either (just as he was not affectionate towards Mala later on), which would explain why Anja relied so much on Artie for emotional support (something he could not give, either). In this sense, Maus suggests that disaffection is a learned defense mechanism that child adopt to deal with their own problems. Hence, while Artie did not experience the Holocaust first-hand, he inevitably applied his father's Holocaust behavior to his more comfortable existence, and this is certainly a significant factor as to why he ended up in a mental hospital (100). However, despite the unaffectionate atmosphere he grew up with, once Artie lived on his own he managed to function fairly healthily with Françoise, indicating that it is possible to grow out of second-hand behavior and continue to adapt, whereas with first-hand behavior (like how Vladek dealt personally with the Holocaust) it is too ingrained to feasibly change. This is a plausible explanation for why Bruce, in Fun Home, was unable to handle his homosexuality in a healthy manner, choosing suicide as his best option, whereas Alison could adapt by “coming out” and ends up having what appears to be a healthy relationship with Joan. While Vladek was “stuck” in a way similar to Bruce, though, he would never consider suicide as an option since self-preservation was basically the only thing he had conditioned himself to be able to do. His account that he and Anja “lived happy, happy ever after” on the last page of Maus II shows his denial as being a part of his psychological fortification that lasts until his death. This mental paralysis leaves its victims alienated from the people and world around them, as they are unable to transition towards a progressive climate.The adaptations that Alison and Artie make upon embracing adulthood are preceded by shocking events – Anja's suicide and the revelations about Bruce's gayness – that leave them mentally incapacitated, as portrayed by Alison curled in a fetal position on the floor (59 and 79) and Artie being in a metaphorical jail cell (103). The fact that Bechdel and Spiegelman choose to represent their traumatic experiences suggests that this trauma is an important part of personal growth as well as a key moment in transition towards maturation and recovery. These characters are at a specific age presented as conducive for distancing one's self from paternity, as both Alison and Artie are 20 years old when one of their parents commits suicide, and Bruce writes that he was “about twenty” (212) when he visited New York for the first time. The ambiguity of the suicides is also pertinent – neither parent left a note – as it leaves Alison and Artie responsible for understanding the deaths at the same time that they are struggling with their own identities. As a result, these memoirs are not just structured narratively around the lives of the authors' fathers, but also convey a difficult and formative period in the authors' lives which they are able to reconcile with through their art. The disconnect between the cartoonists and their parents stems in some ways from the differences in their environments. Bruce muses, “Are there two different worlds? Here and there. Is there any place they meet?” (224) and this invites comparison of the different relevant “worlds,” such as present vs. past, America vs. Europe, country (Beech Creek) vs. city (New York), and heterosexuality vs. homosexuality. He explains, “In the fifties it was not even considered an option” to be openly gay (212), and this complicates our identification of Alison (and her self-identification) as it becomes unclear to what extent her reaction to homosexuality is influenced by her familial upbringing (and attraction/rejection of her father) and what is more influenced by social changes (e.g. gay pride movement, AIDS awareness, post-Nixon era “end of that larger, national innocence” [155]).  In the first panel of page 197, Alison stands between two hypothetical versions of her father, both of them with crease marks on their face that resemble Bruce's. The youthful figure on the left suggests that Bruce could have been a gay rights activist like Alison if he was Alison's age in the eighties instead of the fifties, and the elderly couple on the right, with a sign that says, “together 54 years,” suggests that Bruce might not have killed himself (and would have lived to old age) if he had been openly gay instead of maintaining a heterosexual facade. While Alison clearly sympathizes with this contemporary movement (as she is a part of it), she nevertheless faces an inherent conflict in her identity, as it is her father's closeted homosexuality (and feigned heterosexuality) that provided for her to exist at all. Similarly, Artie is embarrassed that he portrays his father “just like the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew” (I 131), but it is Vladek's miserly and self-preservative qualities that enabled him to survive the camps and allow Artie to exist. Although, on the other hand, Artie's psychiatrist suggests that “it was random” who survived the camps (II 45), which would mean that an extremely pragmatic personality was no more ideal in the camps than it was in Rego Park. Regardless, though, other than the mutual guilt and affection for Anja between Vladek and Artie, their relation is limited, whereas Alison and Bruce are further juxtaposed. In Fun Home, on the bottom of page 120 and the second and third panels of 221, they are shown together in nearly identical positions. However, they are of course dissimilar, and the close timing of Alison's “coming out” and Bruce's death relates with the metaphorical use of the locusts in Chapter 6, especially since the description of locusts as having “spent their years underground in a state of protracted immaturity” (156) is compared to a sense of “closethood” associated with Bruce. But, in a more significant sense, the “discarded exoskeleton” and emergence as a “winged adult” works with the nature of the non-fiction comic, where through creating this book Bechdel has figuratively “shed the mold” of her childhood/memories, allowing her to progress emotionally and mentally now that she dealt with her feelings and anxieties concerning her father. By attempting Fun Home and trying to present her father and her maturation objectively in a way she was never able to do with her diaries, Bechdel can present herself as being a liberated person in a way that goes beyond just her sexual orientation and introverted nature. It is th attention to detail, intention for objectivity, and admittance to fault in Bechdel's narration that allows her to transform her personal journey into a functional historical document.As their fathers become part of the history that they are so preoccupied with, Artie and Alison become able to perceive their family relationships with the clarity and insight ascribed to an artist and historian. Alison remarks that, the last time she saw her father, “ ... we were close. But not close enough” (225), and it was only after he was gone and she could create this book that they were finally “close enough.” It is this shift from living history to memory, from “actual” to “spiritual,” that provides these works with the context to examine our origins and cultural identities.
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| Last Updated on Monday, 02 March 2009 02:57 |
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