Mentor Text

“In the Shadow” by Alison Bechdel is a cartoon aimed at an older age group, made for teenagers. It is about a father and his daughter, who in this story is both the narrator and the protagonist. Bechdel is a cartoonist from Pennsylvania who identifies as a lesbian, a lot of her stories have to do with that subject. I believe that this mentor text is an autobiography about Bechdel’s life. The story is about a girl explaining her childhood. Her dad is described as a sissy just because he cares about flowers, and how he dresses. The daughter explains how she does not want to be pretty, like the other girls. Later in the story, she tells her brother that she wants him to call her Albert instead. During the whole story, I got the sense that she wants to identify as a lesbian and that is maybe why she reacts in such a way to her father. In the end, I get the sense that she finds a place where she fits in. She suspects that her dad is a homosexual. He spends a lot of time with his friend Roy, and she found a naked picture of her dad from a trip with her brothers, her father, and Roy. I believe that Bechdel is explaining her life growing up and therefore it is an autobiography.