Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Alison identifies herself as Icarus and her father as Daedalus. However, how does their story differ from the characters of Greek myth?

A) In the myth, it is Icarus who is the inventor; in Alison’s life, it is her father who comes up with creative ideas for playing together.

B) In the myth, it is Icarus who succeeds; in Alison’s life, it is her father who lives a successful life.

C) In the myth, it is Icarus who has relationships with men; in Alison’s life, it is her father who does.

D) In the myth, it is Icarus who fails; in Alison’s life, it is her father who runs into trouble.

2. Which of the following best describes what Alison means when she says that the Bechdel home is a “sort of still-life exhibit with children”? (Chapter 1)

A) The Bechdels worked to make their life appear like a typical American family.

B) Bruce is focused on the aesthetics of restoring their home but is less concerned with connecting emotionally with his children.

C) Helen wants her children to be seen but not heard, and so Alison feels as though she grew up not being able to explore her identity.

D) The Bechdels had a delicate balance between allowing their children to follow their interests and wanting them to stay close to home.

3. Which of the following is the strongest example of the theme of Closeted Queerness and Queer Experience?

A) Alison’s description of her father as “queer” in every sense of the word

B) Alison’s lack of emotion during her father’s funeral

C) Alison’s memory of her first relationships with women in college

D) Alison’s relationship with her mother and struggles to come out

4. How does the form of a graphic novel accommodate the way in which Bechdel relays her memories?

A) She presents her memories out of order, reflecting the way in which one might notice themes across memories, regardless of their chronology.

B) She presents her memories in order, and the visual elements contained within allow the reader to experience a timeline of her life.

C) She presents her memories as incomplete, suggesting that neither she nor her father were perfect.

D) She presents her memories as complete, illustrating that she has found closure over her childhood and experiences coming of age and coming out.

5. Why does Alison use allusions to literary characters to describe her parents?

A) To build tension

B) To show her knowledge of classical literature

C)  To characterize them

D) To demonstrate that she is different from them

6. Which of the following best describes the function of photographs in Fun Home?

A) They communicate meaning to the reader, and they are real-life evidence to corroborate Alison's story.

B) They communicate meaning to the reader, and they also add to the narrative’s sense of moving through Alison’s memory.

C) They serve as evidence to corroborate Alison’s story, and they include details that Alison does not want to state explicitly.

D) They add to the comic’s sense of moving through Alison’s memory, and they remind the reader that this is not fiction.

7. Which adjective would be best applied to Alison’s narration of her life in her diary while she was going through puberty?

A) Reliable

B) Steady

C) Unreliable

D) Optimistic

8. How do the appearances of Sunbeam Bread foreshadow Bruce’s demise?

A) A Sunbeam Bread truck nearly kills Bruce, and loaves of the bread can be seen in each moment in which Bruce sleeps with a man.

B) A Sunbeam Bread truck kills Bruce, and loaves of it appear in different moments relating to his having to repress sexuality.

C) A Sunbeam Bread truck kills Bruce, and loaves of it appear on the table whenever Alison and Bruce interact.

D) A Sunbeam Bread truck kills Bruce, and Alison is wearing a Sunbeam Bread sweatshirt when she learns that her father has passed away.

9. How does Bruce show affection to Alison?

A) Through books

B) Through art

C) Through gardening

D) Through travel

10. What is revealed by the fact that Helen seldom accompanies her family on vacation?

A) That she knows that Bruce takes young lovers with him, revealing that she is complicit in his crimes, even if that never comes to light

B) That she prefers to spend time with her children one-on-one, believing that she is unable to give equal attention to each of them on vacation

C) That their family and marriage are unstable, contradicting their appearance of being a perfect nuclear family

D) That she and Bruce respect one another, which is a hallmark of the relationship beginning with their correspondence in West Germany

11. Which of the following words best describes Bruce’s interactions with his children?

A) Warm

B) Kind

C) Angry

D) Aloof

12. What do flowers symbolize in Fun Home?

A) Bruce’s interest in gardening and his love for Helen

B) Bruce’s interest in gardening and his sexuality

C) Bruce’s sexuality and his love for Helen

D) Bruce’s love for Helen and his infidelity to her

13. Which of the following moments best exemplifies Alison’s sympathy for her father’s illicit activities?

A) When she reads Ulysses in college

B) When she considers how cold her mother often was toward him, leaving him to take care of their children

C) When she begins feeling alone in college and wonders if this is how her father felt for much of her life

D) When she wonders if she would have been able to come out in the time of her father’s youth

14. Why might Bruce have fixated on houses and historical restoration?

A) He was very concerned with outward appearances.

B) He was worried that his family would leave him if the house wasn’t orderly and aesthetically pleasing.

C) He believed that he could express himself through decoration.

D) He thought that the property value of the house would benefit his children after he passed away.

15. How does Alison relate Ulysses to her life in college?

A) It is based on The Odyssey, and she relates to Circe because she feels alone.

B) She feels like she is stuck in the cycle of everyday life, just like Leopold Bloom.

C) It is based on The Odyssey, and, like Odysseus, she is on a journey exploring her sexuality.

D) She feels like she will never get through the whole novel, but she finds comfort in its chapters’ many forms.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. Why is Fun Home an apt title for this text?

2. Dichotomies and Parallels is one of the themes of this novel. Choose one comparison Alison makes in the novel, whether it is between her father and a literary character or between herself and Bruce, and discuss its significance to Bechdel’s journey.