View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The title of Chapter 6, "The Ideal Husband" is an allusion to the play "An Ideal Husband" written by whom?

2. How old was Mark Douglas Walsh when Bruce Bechdel allegedly seduced him?

3. In Bruce Bechdel's trial, the judge agreed to dismiss the charges against him if he did what?

4. Where did the author's mother tell her they might move because of her father's court hearing in Chapter 6?

5. At what age does Bechdel describe her first foray into poetry in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Bechdel describe the political atmosphere when she was 13 in Chapter 6?

2. What is described in the police report that the author illustrates in Chapter 6?

3. What impacts of her parents' "creative solitude" does the author describe in Chapter 5?

4. What play does the author describe her mother in rehearsals for in Chapter 6? Why is this significant?

5. What does the author describe her mother discovering on an audio tape in Chapter 5?

6. How did the author overcome her obsessive-compulsive tendencies?

7. How does the author describe the changes in her diary in Chapter 6?

8. With whom did Alison Bechdel and her brothers go to stay for several days in Chapter 6? Why?

9. Why did Bruce Bechdel tell his daughter he was going to Danville in Chapter 6?

10. Why does the author say that her family witnessed lots of sunrises in 1974?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's allusions to Henry James and his works in Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Whom does the author associate with Henry James novels? Why? What correlations does she make?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the dream imagery that Bechdel presents in Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. How would you describe the images of these dream sequences? What similes, metaphors, and other literary devices are employed in the dream imagery?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the style of the illustrations in Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. What colors predominate the images? Why do you think these colors were chosen? How do the pictures in the book help the reader relate to the story?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 855 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample