Readers Response #2 The Canary-Colored Caravan of Death

I read the Canary Colored Caravan of Death by Allison Bechdel.  The biggest thing I got from the story was the distance from the family members.  Being from a family that is close to each other, this was the first thing I picked up on.  Another thing I noticed from reading the story was the authors’ dislike of the town Beech Creek.  I think her reason for not liking the town was because of her sexuality and as she had said at her fathers’ funeral, the town was a small, small-minded town.  I also think that she wishes that she was closer to her father like she was in her dreams.  I also got from the reading that she didn’t want any sympathy for her fathers’ death, or at the very least for people to stop treating her like she’s fragile because like she said at the end of the story other than meals her family basically did nothing together, making them an artists’ colony.  I also think that when her father took over coloring in her coloring book, it was his way of trying to get closer to her.  This is something that while her father attempted to get closer to her, her mother preferred to keep her distance.  I do however; think that when Allison and her mother heard the recording her late father made was their own moment of closeness.  Though I think this was a brief window of closeness and after that they went back to their normal relationship of keeping distant from each other.