Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama

Bechdel introduces each chapter with a dream. Dreams often appear vivid and nonsensical, but interpretation is possible through techniques such as Freud’s free association. Bechdel first illustrates the dream without context before revealing the time of the dream and her interpretation process. Both the dreams and the chapter endings contain black borders, connecting the dreams with reality.

Rather than paraphrase information, Bechdel directly quotes the source material of writers like Donald Woods Winnicott and Virginia Woolf. This includes mimicking the fonts and highlighting marks, allowing the reader to see the material as she sees it. Bechdel also depicts Bruce’s handwritten letters, but only shows small bits of Helen’s writings with no recreations of her poems, columns, or diaries.

Photographs serve as a framing device for various topics. These images are alterable, like Alison’s touchups to her childhood photos, and they can also unearth new information, such as when she discovers the photo of her as an infant with Helen is actually part of a series. Bechdel also takes pictures of herself as drawing references, comparing this to her mother’s acting “just that instead of playing a character, I’m playing myself” (234).

The covers for Are You My Mother? use a mirror as the dominant image: The hardcover features Helen’s makeup drawer, and the softcover/digital edition depicts a hand mirror lying next to a photo of Helen reviewing a younger Alison’s work. The mirrors symbolize Helen’s need to perfect herself—both as an actress, and to play the role of mother. These covers also feature the blush that Alison steals from her mother and a necklace similar to the one Helen breaks as a child. Mirrors also represent an important psychological role: Winnicott notes that the mother’s face serves as a mirror to the child at first. Mirrors are also a dominant feature of the old Bechdel family home.

This teddy bear serves as Alison’s transitional object, which Winnicott believes is a possession that allows children to separate from the mother. Despite a period where she takes “almost sadistic pleasure” in leaving Mr. Beezum outside (115), Alison keeps the bear until adulthood. She and Eloise also call each other Beezum, suggesting that her partner also serves as an unintentional transitional object. After Alison kicks a hole in the wall before their breakup, Alison sleeps with Mr. Beezum once again.