Relationships

What I've noticed is that everyone has a different relationship with their parents, particularly Allison Bechdel's relationship with her father, Bruce. Their relationship is so different, estranged... yet similar and close.
Throughout the book, the two get into numerous arguments, mostly based on their differences. She has a need to be a tomboy, while he needs to express his femininity throughout his daughter seeing he can not in today's society.
On page 197, Bechdel writes, " His arrival home from work cast a cold pall on the peaceable kingdom where mom, Christian and I spent our days." This to me, shows a sense that the two were never close. Her father seems closed off to me, maybe trying to conceal his secret of his being gay. The two were constantly at war with each other, each trying to make each other be something they were not (for example, when Bechdel's father pushes her to wear the girliest dress possible.) Ironically enough, there is a bond that forms between a common love for both parties: literature. Bechdel explains how she was in her father's English class and because it was drilled in her, she knew all about the work. She says on page 199, "Sometimes it was as if only my Dad and I were the only ones in the room. I think we were both starved for attention." While this is very deep, it states that both share a secret, both go unnoticed and no one ever really figures out what they hide. The two are connected in that way. There is also a portion I always revert back to, where the two (in an unspoken way) admit to wanting to be the opposite genders... something uncommon for daughter and father to share. The two have an unspoken bond, and their homosexuality connects them. Both are hidden, both are dying to be someone else... maybe that was why the two clashed because each was trying to be accepted into society for what they truly weren't. That moment of realization in the car really signified their bond, by showing one intimate moment between the two. It really makes a person wonder about relationships...