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Quick background on Oranges are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson: this is a memoir centered around a girl questioning her sexuality within the bounds of a conservative Christian family, and the Christian faith to which she is devoted. So not only is the protagonist, Jeanette Winterson, struggling with her mother’s (called “Mother” in the book) disapproval of her newly discovered identity, she must also grapple with the disapproval of her church, and what it would mean to abandon the community that she loves so dearly.  Winterson’s masterful ability to capture the inner turmoil that coming of age often entails made the story particularly believable. In many ways parents, and in Jeanette’s case the church, provide their children with the very first example of what being a good adult means, so the novel begins during Jeanette’s childhood to demonstrate her willingness to internalize the beliefs of the community that surrounds her. This is when she first hears Mother refer to ...

Given that this graphic novel is named Fun Home , the actual fun home aka funeral parlor is not actually talked about that much in the story. I think to Alison the concept of the “fun home” in relation to her father’s tragic storyline is more important than the actual funeral parlor that she spent her childhood working in. For example, the only reason why Alison’s father leaves Europe (and his possible coming of age/coming out) is because his own father passes and he needs to run the business. It ended up being a kind of trap for the father, as in a force that pulled him away from the big city where he could have fully realized his identity rather than hiding it. Going off of Alison’s hypothesis that her father committed suicide, then the end of his life could have very well been caused by his isolation in the small town of Beech Creek.  I think in Alison's eyes, the fun home caused her father’s death more than just literally, but also the death of his identity , morals , and maybe...