It's All About the Order Of Things

Juxtaposition: the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect
Allusions (page 67): indirect or passive reference; an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly

There are many literary elements within this graphic novel.  The two vocabulary words above are two examples of them.  Each page either contains some sort of device or famous literary author.  The author of this graphic novel succeeded in finding an entertaining way to educate her readers.  If that wasn't her intention, she did a phenomenal job anyways.

Juxtaposition is very important in comics.  It basically helps giving meaning to the image, as well as the story.  This is proven on the page I posted to the right.  These illustrations are found on page 70.  On the top is a picture of when Ali's mother and father were in a college play together.  The middle comic shows Ali and her brothers listening in to their parents' argument. The third image on the bottom shows what is actually occurring downstairs in their fight.  The order of these images implies that their marriage is just like the play they were in when they were in college.  This is also what Ali says in the novel.  By seeing these three images together, the audience can relate them all.  The top photo is seen from the audience's point of view of them acting.  The second photo contains the same principle, but instead of acting it's real.  The children would be the audience and they would be overlooking their parents' reality.  The final image is the parents putting on their show.  They all relate and fit like a puzzle piece.  The juxtaposition on this page proves exactly that.

 The comic displayed on the left is another perfect example of juxtaposition.  It's found on page 64.  Ali uses it express the similarities between Gatsby (In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby) and her father.  Not only can the observer read it in the text, but he/she can also see it in the illustration.  The image on the top of the page shows Ali's father speaking to his student at their home.  He is recommending his student to read the Great Gatsby.  The second image shows when Ali's parents took her and her brothers to see the Great Gatsby as soon as it had opened. On the bottom left corner shows her father's annual school portrait.  These images allows the reader to see the resemblance between her father and Gatsby.  The order of these images also allows the reader to make the connections.

If juxtaposition didn't exist, art wouldn't really have a meaning.  There would be infinite questions to one portrait and there would be no way to form a conclusion.  Juxtaposition is basically the reason we can slide all of our crazy ideas into one conclusion.  It helps give art a meaning.  Without it, how could comics possibly exist?

The Past Comes Back To Haunt You

Fun House by Alison Bechdel is a graphic novel based on her life and crazy family.  It's full of metaphors and subliminal messages, causing the reader to need to constantly observe the panels.  In the first 50 pages, she explains how life with her father was.  She then begins to touch on how her father's death affected her.  What she doesn't seem to realize is that her past is her present.  She is a lot more like her father than she sees.  

The past is an important element in this graphic novel. It is constantly popping up in both her words and images.  For example, on page 53 she says that there is "some fleeting consolation in the sheer violence…" This is ironic since she used to shudder at the idea of violence.  Her father was violent with her and her siblings when they were younger.  On page 18, she shows the reader her father's unreasonable violence. In the illustration, she is saying "But I didn't do anything!" Her brother holds onto their mother while crying his eyes out. 

In another pair of panels, the past comes up again.  Her grandmother tells her a story about how her dad got "stuck in the mud" (pg. 40).  The kids loved that story and it would make them happy.  Ironically, that is what Alison refers to on the last page of the second chapter.  She says that he's "stuck in the mud of good this time." (pg. 54) 

These are a couple of the many panels where the past comes up. It's ironic how she saw her dad as more of a negative figure than a positive one, and yet she becomes more like him every day.  She is a lesbian and her father was gay.  They both begin to feel comfortable with violence.  She even refers to his mud story on the very last page of chapter 2.  The past is literally coming back to haunt her.