Perhaps due to the autobiographical aspect of this novel, Alison Bechdel’s persona in the story is vastly more introspective and self-aware than the characters we have read about so far. This aspect of her personality is, most interestingly, revealed best through her recounting of her father. By drawing parallels and contrasts between her father’s grand fictionalization of himself and her own self-analysis, she is able to portray her own identity through a mixture of self-mockery and retrospective techniques. This is a different approach to the narrative form that many fictional characters take, as they tell their stories through largely single perspective, in-the-moment narration. A prominent example is the linkage between her and her father’s tendency to blur the lines between reality and fiction. “Such a suspense of the imaginary in the real was, after all, my father’s stock in trade.” (65) This is soon followed by, “I employ these allusions to James and Fitzgerald not only as descriptive devices, but because my parents are most real to me in fictional terms.” (67) While this constant distancing from her actions does produce the detached attitude Bechdel is undoubtedly attempting to produce, it also creates a third-party role in which the protagonist becomes a spectator of the story that she is a part of.
The question that comes out of this, therefore, is whether being hyper-self-aware and retaining the ability to detach oneself from a plot for the purpose of analyzing events should be one of the criterion of being a fictional character. I believe that this particular tool works well for this story, as the high emotional points can otherwise easily swallow the reader. Bechdel’s persona as a result of this technique is presented with a certain amount of depth and internalization that may have been lost in an event-driven style of narration. However, I do not think that this is an essential or the only one to narrate a story. In plots that demand complete audience absorption and an involved first-person perspective, this technique would not be the only way to introduce introspectiveness and self-awareness.
February 5, 2018 at 11:28 am
You mention that because the narrator is the older version of the protagonist of the story, there is a heightened level of introspection and self-awareness. You attribute this dynamic largely to the fact that the book is an autobiography. However, almost the same technique was used in Invisible Man, of having the older version of the protagonist narrate the story. In this way, Invisible Man is almost a mock-autobiography. Does it change our reading of the story, knowing that Alison’s story is “true” while the invisible man’s story is “fiction”? And where do we draw the line between true and fiction. As you mention, Alison’s father would blur this line, and Alison is doing the same thing, believing her parents to be, on some level, fictional characters.