Mindless Banter 4: Accident or Suicide?

Throughout her graphic novel, Alison often compares her family to different stories such as the Addams Family. At one point in the book, Alison compares her father to Jay Gatsby or James Gatz, the protagonist of the book The Great Gatsby. Gatsby once was a poor man who became wealthy just for the sake of winning over the heart of the woman he loved. I get the sense from both Gatsby and Bruce that they were pretending to be something they were not. In the end, they both tragically die, Gatsby being shot and Bruce being hit by a truck.

Alison points out that both Gatsby and Bruce was forty-four when they died. They lived "The same number of months, the same number of weeks... but Fitzgerald lived three days longer." (page 92)

Whenever Alison mentions that her father had died, she always gets the urge to spurt out that it was a suicide. And I agree with her. I believe that Bruce's death was more of a suicide. On page 131, when somebody says "The Lord moves in mysterious ways." Alison imagines herself yelling, "There's no mystery! He killed himself because he was a manic-depressive, closeted fag and he couldn't face living in this small-minded small town one more second." Alison appeared to be rather sure of herself that her father had committed suicide because of the fact the town would never have accepted him for who he really was.

Bruce had jumped back onto the road and into the path of a truck because he was surprised by something in the bushes, but you have to wonder what he could have saw in there that made him jump back like that.

This is a link that talks about reasons why a person would contemplate or commit suicide. It's mildly morbid, but I think Bruce fits under some of the reasons, and maybe that's why he committed suicide. Link!

Post by Catherine Park.

Lickerman, Alex. "The Six Reasons People Attempt Suicide | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness Find a Therapist. Psychology Today, 29 Apr. 2010. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201004/the-six-reasons-people-attempt-suicide>.

Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. 1. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 232. Print.