In chapter three of Fun Home by Allison Bechdel, there is a scene where Allison and her girlfriend Joan have a visit with Allison’s mother, Helen, after the funeral of her father, Bruce. In this particular scene, Helen is giving away books from Bruce’s library and tells Joan she can have anything from the collection. Joan chooses a book of poems, which Helen is excited to say contains her favorite poem “Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens. She then reads the first stanza out loud with what I saw as a great understanding, so much so that Joan tried to convince Helen that she should keep it. (here is a link to the poem if you would like to read it: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13261/sunday-morning)
The poem “Sunday Morning” is about a woman who is staying home instead of going to church on a Sunday morning. She seems both guilty for skipping church but also extremely appreciative of the calm of a Sunday morning that she would have missed had she gone. Throughout the poem, she is also seeming to have some sort of realization of the role of religion in her life, and wondering why she should spend all her time focusing on religion and getting into heaven, instead of appreciating all the wonderful things in life that come before heaven. In a way, she is viewing going to church and focusing on the afterlife as giving herself away to it, instead of giving her life to things that are much more real to her, like nature and the earth.
At first glance, it was hard to identify the connection Allison sees between this poem and her mothers life. Allison tells readers that “Sunday Morning” is about crucifixion and that Helen possibly liked the poem because it correctly represented her relationship with religion, as in being Christian more in character rather than actual practice. Additionally, Allison hints that Helen enjoys it because she understands sacrifice, most likely meaning within her marriage. Allison even compares the contrast between the pleasant Sunday morning and morbid thoughts of the afterlife with the contrast between Bruce’s obsession with perfection in appearances and the secrets he was hiding.
I also think there are some other connections to be found. For one, I wonder if in some sense it’s symbolic that Helen is reading this poem out loud following Bruce’s funeral. The fact that the poem is about enjoying your life before death is sad to think about considering Bruce most likely spent all his life in a sort of secret anxiety. It’s also symbolic because I can imagine Helen having a sort of somber freedom now that Bruce is dead. Now she can find a fulfillment in life that was impossible to achieve with Bruce controlling every aspect of their appearances.
I didn't really think about Alison's mother all that much, but this makes me wonder about her perspective on Bruce's behavior. It makes sense that she would have some kind of relief when the tension created by Bruce was gone. I feel a lot of sympathy for Helen when I pay attention to the details about her life in the book. Great post!
ReplyDeleteYour interpretation of "Sunday Morning" is really interesting! The summary of the poem reminds me of how Helen is very invested in her theater production almost as an escape from the stress of her marriage life (read this from CJ's blog). In a way, Helen's theater work would have been a Sunday morning for her: playing the role of a different person perhaps allowed her to enjoy a new form of life instead of focusing on the hardships in her real life (analogous to worrying about the afterlife).
ReplyDeleteNice post, I never analyzed this detail from Fun Home at all. I agree that there is definetely a connection between the poem and Helen's marriage with Bruce. They didn't seem to have a close or intimate marriage and Helen often didn't understand Bruce's obsessions. Helen's love for theater is something she wants to pursue and something that she could focus more time on after Bruce's death.
ReplyDeleteI think you draw some very strong connections between Helen's poem and the Bechdels's lives. As Alison was reviewing her life experiences to write this book, I think that all of her narrative choices were extremely intentional. The fact that she chooses to include her mother's poem, whether it happened or not, speaks to the way she wants to have the story portrayed.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the connection between the poem and the character's lives before, but your insights make a lot of sense. The idea of the contrast between the pleasant Sunday morning and morbid thoughts of the afterlife relating to Bruce's obsession with perfection in appearances and the secrets he was hiding is particularly compelling. Nice post!
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