The extensive purposes for the organization, arrangement, and selection of a graphic narrative’s temporal and spatial aspects within a page is called mise-en-page or the page layout. Mise-en-page takes the whole page into consideration to communicate a message. For instance, on page 134 of Fun Home, Bechdel writes, “It was a vicious circle, though. The more gratification we found in our own geniuses, the more isolated we grew.” Illustrated along with this text is a large panel presenting the Bechdel household with circular panels drawn on the side of the house to detail the separate goings on inside each room. Each figure is also painted in a silhouetted form, creating a dissociated and impersonal impression for which to view the Bechdel family. …show more content…
Bechdel implements narration, dialogue, and little information tags as parts of the temporal focus of the comic. When it comes to the spatial aspects, in addition, the reader is meant to pay attention to Bechdel’s use of drawing reflections in the mirror, mood, facial expressions. Despite the fact that there are only two panels on this page, there is a lot happening and there is a lot of vital information being given to the reader. The reader begins to understand that Bruce and Alison are, in a way, inverts of one another, and that Bruce continuously tries to see femininity in her. The attention to multiple details is what really makes this page and its significance towards Bruce and Alison’s similarities and differences standout. Finally, on page 232, the final page of the graphic narrative, Bechdel illustrates a two paneled page wherein the reader is given their his or her last opportunity to analyze Bruce and Alison’s peculiar relationship. The front of the truck that killed Bruce fills the first panel as a form of sentimental salute that leads into the final panel. Bechdel draws herself jumping off of a diving board, seemingly into the arms of her father in the pool. Alison is posed in the air and her father’s arms are out ready to catch her. This is another way of highlighting the distance in their relationship. Forest Helvie states in his article, “Comics as Catharsis: Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home”, “The action is suspended, and unlike a movie or traditional text that would deliver resolution to the reader, Alison and Bruce will forever remain in a stasis apart from one another, locked in an eternal jump without ever reaching each other.” (Helvie) The methods by which Bechdel laid out these pages communicates to the reader her troubled relationship with her father for