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Charles Howard Barksdale, Jr: Difference between revisions
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Otherwise, he has only been spoken of, usually by Amy. She first refers to him in "[[The Tie That Chokes]]," describing his military career and revealing that he had hoped she would be born a male. She delves further into their volatile relationship in "[[None in the Family]]," "[[All But Forgotten]]," and "[[Memory Road]]." Amy feels that her father resented her, first for being born female, second for being the incentive for him to retire from the military and take over his family business. Being a Type A Go-getter (like Helen), he also could not relate to his cynical, mellower youngest daughter. Amy's sense of guilt and inferiority causes her to lash out at Helen in "Memory Road" when she finds out Helen, as a child, had hoped she (Amy) would be born female so she (Helen) could stay her father's favorite.
Not surprisingly, Helen's relationship with her father was much different from Amy's. In "None in the Family, Part One," Jake remarks that Helen and her father "did everything together." While relations between them were strained during Helen's hippie years, it's obvious in "The Age of Cynicism" that they regard each other with affection,
Rita doesn't express many thoughts about Howard, except to lament in "None in the Family, Part Two" that he saw her only as someone pretty and marriageable, and generally paid less attention to her than Helen or Amy.
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