Kyle's Kindle

Jason Taylor is easily my favorite character we've discussed so far. Yet, on the surface he seems the most bland. Jason is not as charismatic as Holden; he is not as cool as Esther; and his story is not as unique as Alison's. Yet when you look beneath his stuttering words and his constant desire to be cool, Jason Taylor is a loveable boy who's impulse to do the right thing consistently shines through. Jason has one true friend: Dean Moran. Yet, at the start of the book, Jason consistently looks down on Dean in order to climb the social ladder. And throughout the first half of the book, Jason successfully does so. Even though his concious screams out against him the whole time, Jason pulls off a badass prank in front of the coolest kids in school. He even gets an invite to the Spooks, the most exclusive gang in all of black swan green. Yet just when he gets accepted into the Spooks, he throws it all away in order to get a chance to help out his friend Dean. While the society...

 When I first picked up Fun Home , I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It was honest, dark, even funny—but what struck me most deeply was the portrayal of Alison's father, Bruce Bechdel. Despite being depicted initially through his many flaws--which I do not wish to minimize despite the scant discussion of them in this post--and emotional distance, Bruce gradually emerged for me as a profoundly empathetic character, someone whose humanity shone through more brightly as I learned about his story. Bruce isn’t your traditional hero. On the surface, he's distant, demanding, even harsh at times. But beneath that exterior--and all the many skeletons hidden away in his closet--is someone struggling deeply with his identity, caught in a life that society dictated rather than one he truly desired. Growing up gay in a world deeply unaccepting of homosexuality, Bruce's internal conflict was palpable. Bechdel reveals her father's hidden life with such care and subtlety that I could...