Authoritarian Parenthood in Fun Home and God Help the Child
Parenthood is an ever-present theme in literature, due to its universal nature and its influence on personality and the development of identities. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel, and God Help the Child, by Toni Morrison, are two works that deal with this precise issue: how identities, and the expression of these identities, are shaped by parenting.
Bruce Bechdel is one of the protagonists of Fun Home. The story centres around the relationship between Bruce and Alison, focusing especially on how his role in his daughter’s life marked her. Throughout the memoir, which is told non-chronologically, Bruce’s many idiosyncrasies and overall behaviour, both towards his children…show more content… Diana Baumrind, a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on parenting styles, believes authoritarian parenting—defined as controlling, rigid, and punishment-based—to be the most damaging to the children’s emotional wellbeing and children brought up this way are generally less independent. (Baumrind) Unsurprisingly, this is the exact kind of parenting Bruce and Sweetness effect, and independence is what Alison and Bride both strive for: freedom from the emotional oppression they experienced. Bruce and Sweetness are both authoritarian—they are tyrants. Bruce expresses a paternal dictatorship through his obsessive-compulsive behaviours—restoring the Victorian home, being cold and even having irate episodes towards his family, and ordering Alison to act and dress femininely against her wishes being the most obvious ones—that conceal his secret homosexuality. On the other hand, Sweetness’ tyranny is a direct reaction to her shame over her daughter’s skin colour manifested through her refusal to let Bride call her “mum” or any other maternal paronym, as well as her strictness and…show more content… The characters themselves, indicated at the beginning of each section by their name, tell many of the novel’s chapters. This allows the reader to see the point of view, thoughts, and opinions of the narrating character in particular, relying information that is subjective and individual. Through these homodiegetic chapters, the reader is able to witness Bride’s transformation to a child, Brooklyn’s real attitude towards Bride, and Sweetness’ shame, as well as her justification of her daughter’s radical