The book Fun Home illustrates the life of the main character Alison and her journey to "coming out" to the world. Throughout the illustration of her life it also discusses her relationship with her late father. As the reader dives more into the book, they learn that her father was a closeted gay man. This not only opens Alison's eyes to her view on the world but also what her father must have dealt with when growing up. An interesting aspect of the story is the use of inanimate objects. As the book Understanding Comics states, "if an artist wants to portray the beauty and complexity of the physical world realism of some sort is going to play a part." This demonstrates the idea that all objects have certain meanings in books. For example, in the beginning of the book the author discusses a fond memory of her father and her playing the game of airplane as seen below. Now if the reader looked closely at this comic section they would notice the book Anna Karenina. Not only does Anna Karenina deal with themes of adultery which in Fun Home the father does commit, but also covers a very dark premise. Consider the opening line, "all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Meaning that although some families put on a facade that they are happy there could be inner turmoils in the family. Regardless, the children in Fun Home do find ways to have fun. With the continuation of the use of inanimate objects, a section of the book discusses of the origin "Fun Home". Fun Home refers to the funeral home that the authors father runs. Although the children dislike cleaning and arranging flowers for memorial services, they find there own ways of fun such as playing hide and seek in the coffins as well as playing with microphone podiums. Meaning that, although some objects may seem stationary if you imagine it as something else it could make everything fun. An example of the funeral scene can be found during the musical version of Fun Home, with the musical song Welcome to the Fun Home. Objects have many different meanings it just depends on how the viewer looks at it.
