Anonymous user
Amy Barksdale: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
|||
Line 19:
As an adult, Amy is sarcastic to the point of rudeness when speaking with or about her sisters, even if she's talking to her nieces or her sister's spouses/boyfriends. She says what's on her mind and doesn't care what anyone thinks of it. (In "I Don't," she feels "no particular obligation to listen to anyone else's B.S. Ever.") Her wit is quick but with a sharp, angry edge. Her lack of involvement in Barksdale family life has carried over to the point that Daria and Quinn barely recognize Amy when she appears in "I Don't." Amy can't recall whether Daria is in high school, college, "or something." She's deliberately remained out of the picture for decades, a willing and determined outsider who is always "out of place" when with her siblings.
In "Aunt Nauseam," Amy makes a curious comment. In response to Daria, who
Amy appears to be bright, well-read, introverted, prone to respond in an intellectual rather than emotional manner, and highly judgmental. Her smoldering anger over being the forgotten baby expresses itself as razor-sharp ridicule and scorn. She prefers to dress casually but with style. Comfortably self-sufficient, she can travel far afield on vacations, such as to Hawaii. She does not appear to be married, and nothing is ever said about her previous (or current) romantic or sexual relationships.
In many ways, Amy presents herself as what Daria could one day be, for good or ill. This point was made during "I Don't" and cemented in "Aunt Nauseam," when Amy got into a verbal fight with her older sisters in a way uncomfortably like Daria might someday do with Quinn, unless they found the means to get along. Quinn recognized this point well before Daria did. Though Amy and her sisters made up with each other at the end of "Aunt Nauseam," it is doubtful that four decades of hurt and rage will remain so easily buried in the future.
To paraphrase something [[Canadibrit]] once wrote in a fanfic, Amy is the best indication that Daria is related to these people. That is likely why she has appeared way more often in fanfiction than she has in the series.
==Personal History==
Beyond the three episodes in which she appears, we know almost nothing about Amy. A little can be guessed about her childhood, though. When she was born, Rita was about twelve and Helen was eight, both still in grade school. By the time Amy was ten (1968), both older sisters had already left home. Most of the fighting between Helen and Rita went on while Amy was in elementary or middle school. If Amy was reading "weird Russian novels" at this time, she must have been a genius. Perhaps after high school Helen and Rita came home for short visits, during which time Amy locked herself in her room to have uninterrupted reading time.
In his essay, Richard Lobinske deduces that Rita was married for the first time in December 1974 or January 1975. Helen and Jake were married in June 1975. Amy would have been 16-17. A year or two later, given the information in "Jake of Hearts," Jake's father died. When asked about the death of Amy, Helen, and Rita's father, Glenn Eichler thought he would have passed away "when Helen was about 30," which would be around 1980. Amy would have been 22.
Mr. Eichler said in his interviews that he thought the Barksdales were from Virginia, a Southern state with a cosmopolitan atmosphere. Amy says in "Aunt Nauseam" that she drove "a few hours" to get to the Morgendorffer home, and the wedding for Rita's daughter Erin was not a long drive for the Morgendorffers. All three sisters and their mother probably live within a 200-mile wide circle, not terribly far from each other. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland suggest themselves as possible home states.
==Appearances in ''Daria'' Episodes==
In "[[I Don't]]," Amy attended [[Erin Chambers|Erin]]'s wedding, then escaped with Daria to get cheese fries and, more importantly, implicitly suggest that there's a place for one of Daria's mindset in the real world after all. In "[[Through a Lens Darkly]]" she gave advice about Daria's wearing contact lenses. Finally, in "[[Aunt Nauseam]]," Daria called brought her in to mediate between Rita and Helen. Amy ended up, to the surprise of many viewers, adding more fuel to the fire until Daria and Quinn saved the day
==Fanfiction Portrayals==
Line 52 ⟶ 59:
==External Links==
* [http://www.the-wildone.com/essays/kw_essays/savior_or_chimera.html "Amy: Savior or Chimera?"] (essay) by [[Kara Wild]]
* [http://www.the-wildone.com/dvdaria/
[[category:Canon Characters|Barksdale, Amy]]
| |||