Eva Abuya, Girl of Mystery and Fashion
In the Milborough Mall, they have a clothing store with what I would say has unusual pipe work apparent in panels 1, 2, and 4 of today’s For Better or For Worse. I don’t know if this is modeled off of a particular store in North Bay, Ontario or not, as many of the stores in For Better or For Worse are. Nevertheless the use of the pipes is so prevalent and they are so low-hanging that they are used as a part of the display to hold clothes in panel 2.
Since Eva Abuya’s very first appearance, she has been presented as a clothes horse, almost always dressing better than April.
The other aspect of Eva was her background, which implied a certain sense of poverty. In this strip she hints that her background is a country where her home was a warzone, and she also takes April to task for complaining about the things she has.
Both of those elements come together nicely in today’s For Better or For Worse. Eva tries on many clothes and ultimately ends up selecting the only item she can probably afford, which is the belt she wears with every outfit. My favourite outfit is the one in the second panel, where Eva looks remarkably like DC Comics hero, the Karate Kid (no relationship to the movie version), and has a pose different from the glamour poses in the other panels. Of course, the hero Eva most resembles is Storm of the X-men, with that white hair.
The part that doesn’t really ring true in today’s strip is the idea that April is not trying on clothes too, and is gaping with mouth open at each outfit Eva wears. We know from this strip, that April likes to do that. The fact she is not doing that could be leading into yet another “April condemns her friend” sequence. April’s and the salesclerk’s expression in the final 2 panels, do not indicate approval of Eva trying on all those clothes to only buy one item.
For example, April used to gossip in malls about passersby with Becky McGuire. Then one day, April was too good to do that, which ultimately led to a permanent separation from Becky McGuire. We have seen April destroy her band, and ditch her boyfriend in the past year, as a ridiculous preparation for going to university; so this thought is not out of the realm of possibility. Personally, I hope this is not the direction we are going.
I wouldn’t mind a confrontation leading to April finding out the answer to a question which has bothered me since Eva Abuya came on the scene: Which country is she from? I have long suspected Nigeria, which has the capital city of Abuja, since Lynn Johnston sometimes likes place names (example Susan Dokis, from the Dokis First Nation).
The most we ever learned about her came from this monthly letter:
April's Letter, December 2005
I sit next to Eva in history class...I didn't know anybody at all in that class; all of my friends from our old school have history earlier in the day. Eva was new, and she looked a bit lost when she walked into class. I'm usually a little bit shy with people I don't know, so I don't know why I offered to be her partner when we were pairing up for an interview project, but I did. Really, it was selfish. I didn't want to be the last person to find a partner, and she didn't seem to know anyone either so I didn't think she'd turn me down. She turned out to be really cool, so I invited her to sit with me and Gerald at lunch. It would be nice if we got to be friends. She is really attractive. Her dad is black and her mom is white (sort of like Lawrence, but his dad's South American). She has thick blonde curly hair and dark skin, She has green eyes and this great smile. Duncan is crazy about her (he says), but is too shy to talk to her, much less ask her out, so he hangs with me a lot so he can see Eva more. I've never seen Duncan act so nervous before. It's funny, but I know where he's coming from.
It would have been fun to see April work as a matchmaker between Eva and Duncan, if only to see how Lynn Johnston would bungle it, as she seems to be bungling all the romances these days. However, it was basically completed from start to finish in these 2 strips. After that, Duncan and Eva were a couple, with no signs of any disagreement between them. Considering the Anthony and Liz romance, that was a pretty well-written romance for Lynn Johnston.
Since Eva Abuya’s very first appearance, she has been presented as a clothes horse, almost always dressing better than April.
The other aspect of Eva was her background, which implied a certain sense of poverty. In this strip she hints that her background is a country where her home was a warzone, and she also takes April to task for complaining about the things she has.
Both of those elements come together nicely in today’s For Better or For Worse. Eva tries on many clothes and ultimately ends up selecting the only item she can probably afford, which is the belt she wears with every outfit. My favourite outfit is the one in the second panel, where Eva looks remarkably like DC Comics hero, the Karate Kid (no relationship to the movie version), and has a pose different from the glamour poses in the other panels. Of course, the hero Eva most resembles is Storm of the X-men, with that white hair.
The part that doesn’t really ring true in today’s strip is the idea that April is not trying on clothes too, and is gaping with mouth open at each outfit Eva wears. We know from this strip, that April likes to do that. The fact she is not doing that could be leading into yet another “April condemns her friend” sequence. April’s and the salesclerk’s expression in the final 2 panels, do not indicate approval of Eva trying on all those clothes to only buy one item.
For example, April used to gossip in malls about passersby with Becky McGuire. Then one day, April was too good to do that, which ultimately led to a permanent separation from Becky McGuire. We have seen April destroy her band, and ditch her boyfriend in the past year, as a ridiculous preparation for going to university; so this thought is not out of the realm of possibility. Personally, I hope this is not the direction we are going.
I wouldn’t mind a confrontation leading to April finding out the answer to a question which has bothered me since Eva Abuya came on the scene: Which country is she from? I have long suspected Nigeria, which has the capital city of Abuja, since Lynn Johnston sometimes likes place names (example Susan Dokis, from the Dokis First Nation).
The most we ever learned about her came from this monthly letter:
April's Letter, December 2005
I sit next to Eva in history class...I didn't know anybody at all in that class; all of my friends from our old school have history earlier in the day. Eva was new, and she looked a bit lost when she walked into class. I'm usually a little bit shy with people I don't know, so I don't know why I offered to be her partner when we were pairing up for an interview project, but I did. Really, it was selfish. I didn't want to be the last person to find a partner, and she didn't seem to know anyone either so I didn't think she'd turn me down. She turned out to be really cool, so I invited her to sit with me and Gerald at lunch. It would be nice if we got to be friends. She is really attractive. Her dad is black and her mom is white (sort of like Lawrence, but his dad's South American). She has thick blonde curly hair and dark skin, She has green eyes and this great smile. Duncan is crazy about her (he says), but is too shy to talk to her, much less ask her out, so he hangs with me a lot so he can see Eva more. I've never seen Duncan act so nervous before. It's funny, but I know where he's coming from.
It would have been fun to see April work as a matchmaker between Eva and Duncan, if only to see how Lynn Johnston would bungle it, as she seems to be bungling all the romances these days. However, it was basically completed from start to finish in these 2 strips. After that, Duncan and Eva were a couple, with no signs of any disagreement between them. Considering the Anthony and Liz romance, that was a pretty well-written romance for Lynn Johnston.
posted by howard at 6:09 PM
14 Comments:
howard:
I wouldn’t mind a confrontation leading to April finding out the answer to a question which has bothered me since Eva Abuya came on the scene: Which country is she from? I have long suspected Nigeria, which has the capital city of Abuja, since Lynn Johnston sometimes likes place names (example Susan Dokis, from the Dokis First Nation).
It's always bothered me that we know so little about her and Duncan. Of the few friends April has, their histories and hopes for the future make Anthony's character look well defined.
April’s and the salesclerk’s expression in the final 2 panels, do not indicate approval of Eva trying on all those clothes to only buy one item.
I took the disapproval to be not about trying on all of those outfits without buying them, but to be about dumping them all on the checkout counter and not buying them. Who does that? Poor sales clerk thought she was getting a fat commission.
dreadedcandiru2,
It's always bothered me that we know so little about her and Duncan. Of the few friends April has, their histories and hopes for the future make Anthony's character look well defined.
Not just Anthony, but Shawna-Marie and Dawn Enjo are better-defined for Liz. And Lawrence Poirier, Gordon Mayes, Brian Enjo and Josef Weeder are much better-defined than Liz’s friends. This is what comes from defining the friends of a character for no other reason than to show the character is not a racist. Look how cool April is. None of her friends are white except for her boyfriend and that special needs girl, Shannon Lake.
aprilp_katje,
I took the disapproval to be not about trying on all of those outfits without buying them, but to be about dumping them all on the checkout counter and not buying them. Who does that?
This would make sense to a reasonable person, but this Lynn doing the writing. What we see is April holding all these outfits while Eva is trying them on. If April knew that Eva was only going to buy the belt, then she could have been putting them up or putting them in the place in the fitting room where you put clothes that need to be put up. At some point, April has her arms full of these clothes and she hands them to Eva, most likely with the expectation that Eva is going to buy them. It’s hard to say, since we can’t hear their conversation. I suppose we will have to see what April complains about tomorrow to find out which way Lynn is going to go with it. If Lynn goes with the “April is spoiled” theme again with Eva, I think the possibility exists that April may complain about not buying, and not about the putting them up.
howard:
If Lynn goes with the “April is spoiled” theme again with Eva, I think the possibility exists that April may complain about not buying, and not about the putting them up.
Which is pretty much the reverse of how things would work in the real world. In real life, April would complain about having to put the clothes away and then, BAM!!, Eva's in her face about being spoiled.
dreadedcandiru2,
In real life, April would complain about having to put the clothes away and then, BAM!!, Eva's in her face about being spoiled.
This is really a difficult one to predict. When it was April and Becky, April's response was often only in a thought bubble, or no response at all except to be gobsmacked. It is entirely possible that Eva's behaviour is to be considered as overall rude behaviour by a teenager and the next day's strip will not even mention it or a response from April. The only reason I am second-guessing is because April does not have a smile on her face, and Lynn Johnston has been going through the process of eliminating all of April's friends in some kind of misguided university preparation.
howard:
The only reason I am second-guessing is because April does not have a smile on her face, and Lynn Johnston has been going through the process of eliminating all of April's friends in some kind of misguided university preparation.
That, unfortunately, is probably where this is leading. It seems clear that like her mother and father before her, April is in the process of destroying each and every one of her high school friendships because she thinks she has to. I can say this with some confidence because we have never seen during the history of the strip anyone from John or Elly's youth who was not a relative. It seems clear that there are a lot of people in their late fifties and early sixties back in Aberdeen, Manitoba who wish Johnny Patterson would visit more often. Almost as many, I should think, as those who live in Vancouver and wish Elly Richards hadn't seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. For some unguessable reason, the two of them both thought they had to break every link to their past that came from outside the family to succeed.
"We have seen April destroy her band, and ditch her boyfriend in the past year, as a ridiculous preparation for going to university".
Let's see who April may be copying; how about: We have seen Liz destroy her career at Mtig, and ditch her boyfriend in a ridiculous storyline about "missing her family".
Sure seems April could have found someone a little more intelligent (or happier) to emulate.
Hey, maybe she'll continue her prep for university by stating she can't afford to buy anything. That would also help with more of the "Pattersons are so poor..." theme.
I looked up Eva's bio on the FBOFW site (http://www.fborfw.com/features/who/main.php?id=104) and it doesn't say exactly what country she's from. Does anyone know?
dreadedcandiru2
For some unguessable reason, the two of them both thought they had to break every link to their past that came from outside the family to succeed.
Excellent point. Aside from the hometowns, John and Elly did go to the University of Toronto, which is supposed to be close to Milborough. Can it possibly be that John made no friends in dental school with whom he keeps in contact at dental conventions or the like? Even within the Milborough area, Elly’s former friends, Carol Enjo and Anne Nichols are all but nonexistent. I had attributed this to more Lynn Johnston wanting to limit the number of characters for story-telling purposes; but now that you mention it, April has been in the process of intentional destruction that might be more family tradition than university preparation.
debjyn,
Let's see who April may be copying; how about: We have seen Liz destroy her career at Mtig, and ditch her boyfriend in a ridiculous storyline about "missing her family".
That could well be it. As Liz decided to move to Milborough, April may be deciding to move from Milborough, and for reasons beyond understanding, this involves destroying relationships before you can go.
Hey, maybe she'll continue her prep for university by stating she can't afford to buy anything.
If we went April’s final year of senior secondary school, I would be surprised if April did not complain about the lack of money. It’s another family tradition.
Muzition
I looked up Eva's bio on the FBOFW site (http://www.fborfw.com/features/who/main.php?id=104) and it doesn't say exactly what country she's from. Does anyone know?
I do not know. We know her parents are from different races and she had an experience in a war zone. That’s it. I presumed Nigeria, but there is nothing there historically to match the approximate time necessary for a 17-year-old Eva to have experienced a war zone.
Well, we don't "know" that Eva has any actual experience with being in a war zone. For all we know, Eva was being a drama queen and going out of her way to think of things that are worse than the situation that April was in (moving to the TTH). Similarly we don't "know" that Luis is from a family of refugees.
I doubt we'll ever see any strip that spells out where Eva is "from," as I imagine in Lynn's brain somewhere, she already decided that Eva isn't from anywhere other than Canada.
aprilp_katje,
I doubt we'll ever see any strip that spells out where Eva is "from," as I imagine in Lynn's brain somewhere, she already decided that Eva isn't from anywhere other than Canada.
I will have to respectfully disagree on this one. Lynn makes a big deal out of this stuff.
If Duncan Anderson is from Barbados, and the Enjos are from Japan, and the Sobinskis are from Poland, and Paul Wright is ½ Irish and ½ Ojibway; then Luis Guzmán is from a family of Mexican refugees and Eva has actual experience with being in a war zone. I have to apply the standard of truth consistent with the story-telling style. Lynn has not, to my knowledge, ever had a character claim that something significant in their past happened which did not happen (Liz’s leaving Mtigwaki for being homesick, not withstanding). However, I do think it is entirely possible that Lynn will never spell out where Eva is “from”, for no other reason than trying to find a real country that fits the “war zone” description would require her to do research.
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