D’Angelo Barksdale: Nature Verses Nurture

By: Brock Vierra

In the hit TV show The Wire, D’Angelo Barksdale is one of the first main characters and one of the first major criminals we encounter in the show’s pilot. One of the focal points throughout the first season, we first witness D’Angelo on trial for the murder of Pooh Blanchard. We see Barksdale engage in various criminal and immoral activities including drug dealing, transportation of illegal substances, affairs, and involvement in multiple murders among other heinous things throughout his run. Spoilers ahead.

For all intensive purposes, Barksdale is a terrible person, at least from the outside. However, a further evaluation into his known life reveals a complicated figure who acts in the matter in which he does because he seemingly has no choice. He can not leave, he can not work a real, legit job or at least one that pays the bills and he will forever be part of the game due to his last name.

D’Angelo is a trapped soul hoping for freedom, freedom that he nearly negotiates before taking the fall for the crew on behalf of his mother’s urging. Now the question I ask is was D’Angelo Barksdale a product of his environment or was he inherently prone to be a “shitbird” from birth. Let’s talk about it.

D’Angelo Barksdale: Was it Nature or Nurture?

Let’s begin with the nature argument. When addressing nature verses nurture, the agreed upon definitions are that “nature refers largely to our genetics. It includes the genes we are born with and other hereditary factors that can impact how our personality is formed and influence the way that we develop from childhood through adulthood. Nurture encompasses the environmental factors that impact who we are.” This is according to Verywellmind.com

Well from a nature standpoint, there’s a legit argument that D’Angelo inherited violent tendencies. From what we know about his lineage, D’Angelo’s mother Brianna is a Barksdale. Brianna is the sister of Avon Barksdale, the leader of the Barksdale crew. Avon is a violent individual who commands respect through fear, intimidation and flat out murder. Avon, unlike his second in command Stringer Bell, is quick to loud outbursts as displayed during the hood basketball game and is quick to kill as shown by the murders of William Gant, Deirdre Kresson and Nakeesha Lyles just to name a few.

D’Angelo Barksdale has a violent uncle in Avon and considering we have no info on his father, Avon serves as D’Angelo’s father figure. D’Angelo’s grandfather Butch Stanford, who was a massive player back in the day, was also known for his drug dealing ways and propensity to kill. So we can trace D’Angelo’s ways through at least three generations.

Also let’s talk about the fact he was born into the game. The game was his life from the moment he was born and obviously his family was involved before his conception. Humans who are in competition breed violence behaviors and considering his grandfather was a vested member in the game, another argument could be posed that he’s been a warrior from beyond birth.

There’s a flip side that also backs the nature argument. That flip side is that D’Angelo isn’t a real gangster. He’s clearly not a real killer as he fabricated his involvement in the murder of Deirdre Kresson. He was talking like he was the trigger man when in reality, he was just the distraction while Roland Brice was the real killer. Even his murder of Pooh Blanchard was questionable at best in terms of premeditation and violent intent.

It’s clear Blanchard was unarmed as was backed up by multiple people. D’Angelo’s only body came from the fact he couldn’t fight back when Blanchard attacked, something Avon chastises D’Angelo for. Yes he pulled the trigger but it’s quite clear he ain’t no killer. Maybe nature made D’Angelo his true self and his actions came from desperation.

The real D’Angelo is a man with insecurities as expressed during his fine dining scene with his baby momma, a man who just wants to be normal as shown during his interrogation and a man who just wants to be left alone as shown through his final interaction with his mother. Maybe nature didn’t make him who he is but maybe who we see him as isn’t who he really is either.

On the other half, the argument is that who D’Angelo Barksdale is, is a molded version of some twisted fantasy concocted by Avon and Brianna. The only reason D’Angelo is dead is because of his mother. Brianna can cry all the tears she wants but if D’Angelo turned state’s witness, he would still be alive today. His mom introduced him to the game, made him stay loyal to it and instilled a sense of loyalty to the Barksdale name when in reality, Avon did everything not to keep D’Angelo alive but to keep him profitable.

Perhaps D’Angelo was molded by the hood. He grew up surrounded by drugs, dealers and cops. He was taught that this way of living was normal and that he had a job to do. A job that heavily influenced his life’s trajectory.

Perhaps it was Baltimore all together. D’Angelo is a complex character with many flaws. Something we can say about Det. Jimmy McNulty, a habitually adulterer just like his partner Det. Bunk Moreland. Even worse is Herc and Ellis Carver who are essentially members of the game whenever they choose, protected by the shine of their badge. In a weird way, the main players in The Wire are wildly different versions of the same person. That person is a product of Baltimore.

Or maybe it was the fact that D’Angelo was in a position of power. In the game, a person in a position of power immediately becomes a target. Maybe the real version was that insecure version we see periodically come out and the facade is his protection. Much to discuss.

How I see it is that D’Angelo Barksdale isn’t the product of nature or nurture. He is the victim of circumstance. Maybe the reason he is who he was is simply the fact that he was born to a family of gangsters in Baltimore. There’s nothing else. Had he been born to a middle class family in the suburbs of Maryland, D’Angelo Barksdale isn’t a murderer, isn’t a dealer and he doesn’t become a statistic.

We see qualities in Avon, in Stringer Bell that resemble generals, emperors, tacticians. What we see in D’Angelo is a lost soul. Too bad him mom showed more loyalty to a name then to her son. Shame isn’t it?

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