Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Fun Home is a story of Alison Bechdel’s childhood.

• How is this a coming-of-age story? (topic sentence)
• Although Bechdel does not tell the story in order, we still see her grow from childhood to adulthood at different points. Use examples from the text that explain what growth happens at different points in Bechdel’s life.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate how Bechdel’s coming of age was affected by her family.

2. Books and literature is a recurring motif throughout this novel.

• Why are the allusions to different literary texts important to this story? (topic sentence)
• Provide three examples of references to literary texts and the role that they play in Bechdel’s narrative.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, connect these allusions back to Alison’s relationship with her father.