Alison Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home opens with a series of panels depicting how she and her father played airplane. At the same time, Bechdel makes a connection between the fact that they play airplane and the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. It's important to note that what Alison and her father are doing in this scene is role-playing. One of them must act as support while the other flies. It's a role-playing game, but a game nonetheless, and both seem very serious while playing it. Alison can fly, just like Icarus, while playing this game, but this is not necessarily true in their daily lives outside of the airplane game. Bechdel says that “in [their] particular reconstruction of this mythical relationship, it was not [her], but [her] father who was to fall from the sky” (Bechdel p. 4). This calls into question which one of them is the father in their relationship. The confusing parallels between Alison, her father, Icarus, and Daedalus highlight the blurred power relationship between Alison and her father. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe conflicts between them were almost always caused by her father trying to solve his personal problems through her. He wants her to dress in a very feminine way because that's something he's never been able to do. He fails to recognize that his daughter is also experiencing things that are specific to her. Instead of playing the role of a father, he puts all the pressure on Alison to be both his own father and his own father. The father can fly as Icarus supported by Alison as Daedalus all the time and Alison can't keep up with that. Every time Alison wants to open up to her father, the conversation turns to her father's issues. During the scene in the car (p. 220), after Alison tries to find out if her father knew she was gay this whole time, her father only focuses on himself and dismisses questions from Alison. The book she thought he was trying to give her as a guide to self-discovery was actually a way of introducing himself. Because in the end, everything revolved around him. That’s when Bechdel wonders which one of them was the father because she’s doing all the parental listening (p. 221). Bechdel concludes the novel with a scene at the swimming pool playing with his father (pp. 230-32). Throughout the scene, she recounts her own reasoning regarding fatherhood and her relationship with her father. It wasn't as simple as being a father to your own father. Their relationship was delicate and both, especially the father, took advantage of each other to discover their own identity. Bechdel attempts to uncover for the reader the nature of their relationship by juxtaposing the pool scene with Ulysses and the legend of Icarus. She feels that her father sacrificed many things that were not his for himself, just as Joyce sacrificed Beach's financial stability for Ulysses (p. 230-1). At the same time, her father was Icarus and flew too close to the sun, but “he was always there to catch [Alison] when [she] jumped” (p. 232). The novel ends with them playing together in the pool, as expressionless as when they were playing airplane. This blurred relationship is further distorted by Bechdel writing a story about her father, in which she has ultimate control over how she shapes his character. Taking into consideration Lacan's mirror stage, Alison's father establishes that her ego is fundamentally dependent on external objects or others. Through books, he creates an “ideal” self of who he thinks he is or should be. As the idea he has in mind does not coincide with his experiences, he needs Alison to fill this gap...