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Since she does not have money, she can return to her husband. However, Amy does not see it as a choice. She just waits without planning anything. She does not
know what to do and where to go. At this point, she is being impulsive and fails to plan ahead. She does not have any back up plan or aware of the possibility that she
might get robbed. Her decision to kill Desi in order to run from him is another impulsivity she
made. She goes to Desi in order to hide even though she knows Desi will keep her like an antic figure. Amy realizes that she cannot go anywhere when she is with Desi.
Therefore, she kills Desi and frames her as her kidnapper. The decision she made to kill Desi is a kind of impulsivity which obviously harms Desi’s life.
Failure to plan ahead and acting without thinking which harm self or other people are part of being impulsive. From the explanations above, it can be clearly
seen that Amy is impulsive. It is indicated by her actions that show her failure in planning ahead and acting without thinking. Those actions can harm herself or other
people around her.
4. Irritability and Aggressiveness
For some people, holding anger is easy. However, it is not that easy for people with antisocial personality disorder. They find it hard to hold anger. Besides, it is
easy for them to get irritated. Because of it, people with antisocial personality disorder tend to get involved in physical fights or assaults American Psychiatric
Association, 2000: 650. Amy is easily irritated because of small things. When she is
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angry, she can do something serious which can harm herself or other people. She is being aggressive when she is irritated. Amy’s irritability and aggressiveness can be
shown by quotations below. I suppose it’s not a compromise if only one of you considers it such, but that
was what our compromises tended to look like. One of us was always angry. Amy, usually.
Flynn. 2012: 4 The quotation above is Nick’s opinion about Amy. He tells the reader that
they often have compromises which end up with Amy is being angry. According to Nick, Amy is the one who is always angry when the compromise does not go well.
He even puts ‘always’ and ‘usually’ to show that Amy is the one who gets irritated when they have compromise.
Nick’s opinion about Amy’s irritability and aggressiveness is also shown when they do the anniversary routine. On their anniversary, Amy always makes a
kind of treasure hunt game which leads him to the anniversary present. Amy uses clue which has to be solved by Nick. The clue usually refers to the sweet memories they
have. However, Nick rarely solves the clue because he could not remember any small talk they have. Because of it, Amy does not speak to him. It can be seen below.
By the time we got to the end of the day, to exchanging our actual presents – the traditional paper presents for the first year of marriage – Amy was not
speaking to me. Flynn. 2012: 22
Nick even tells “the Amy of today was abrasive enough to want to hurt, sometimes.” Flynn, 2012: 54. Nick is someone who lives in the same house with
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Amy and the closest person to Amy. It means he witnesses every single thing Amy did. That is the reason why his opinion towards Amy’s abrasiveness can be a proof
that Amy has irritability and aggressiveness in her personality. Another proof which shows Amy’s irritability and aggressiveness is when she
and her husband, Nick, drives to Massachusetts Flynn, 2012: 285. While driving, Amy’s car is flipped by a trucker. It is not harmful but Amy is so angry and calls the
company of the trucker to get the driver fired. Even in two months after the incident, Amy still tries to call the company. She even makes up the story of the incident. It is
a vivid proof how Amy is easily irritated because of small cause. Amy’s irritability and aggressiveness are already shown when she was in high
school. Amy’s best friend in high school, Hillary Handy, tells a story how she was framed by Amy just because of simple reasons. The quotation can be seen below.
‘A guy from our brother school, he meets us both at the fall dance, and the next day he calls me instead of Amy. Which I’m sure he did because Amy
was too intimidating, but whatever . . . and then a few days later, our midterm grades come, and mine are slightly better, like four-point-one versus four-
point. And not long after, one of our friends, she invites me to spend Thanksgiving with her family. Me, not Amy. Again, I’m sure this was
because Amy intimidated people. She wasn’t easy to be around, you felt all the time like you had to impress. But I can feel things change just a little. I
can tell she’s really irritated, even though she doesn’t admit it. . . .’
Flynn, 2012: 325
In the quotation above, Hillary Handy tells Nick the reasons why Amy frames her when they are in high school. As the icon of Amazing Amy, Amy cannot accept
the fact that Hillary Handy is more popular than her. Hillary is called by a boy from
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the brother school and gets invited by their friend while Amy does not. Because of these reasons, Amy gets really irritated and she wants to punish Hillary. She then
punishes Hillary by framing her. She throws herself down the stairs and tells people that she is pushed by Hillary. This accident happens because Amy got irritated by
Hillary Handy. It is a clear evidence of Amy’s irritability and aggressiveness. The fact that Amy gets irritated by simple reasons can also be seen from
Hillary Handy’s story when they are in high school. After the incident, Hillary chooses to move back to Memphis a month later. Suddenly, she gets a letter that
shows the list why Amy frames her. It can be seen in the quotation below. ‘About a month after I moved back to Memphis, I got a letter. It wasn’t
signed, it was typed, but it was obviously Amy. It was a list of all the ways I’d let her down. Crazy stuff: Forgot to wait for me after English, twice.
Forgot I am allergic to strawberries, twice.’
Flynn, 2012: 326 From the lines above, the reasons written why Amy framed Hillary are
obviously not that serious. However, what she did to Hillary is beyond the normal people would do.
The explanations above show that Amy is a kind of person who is easily irritated because of small things and aggressive in order to return the anger. It can be
concluded from some points above that Amy has irritability and aggressiveness in her personality by showing some actions, i.e. framing her best friend because she is more
popular than her, calling the trucker company because it flips her car, and acting abrasive to her husband.
