October 27, 2014 - 09:53
Even though Haddiyah's paper is not fully uploaded, there are already some really interesting ideas. She looked up the etymology of bad seed and found out that the bad seed is not turned bad but is born bad. So Yumi is not a "bad seed" but is a good seed that did not get flurished during her childhood.
She also argues that the bad influences (weed) that affect Yumi is Mr. Rhodes, the teacher who got into both her mind and body. and the other weed is her parents. after Yumi ran away, she barely heard from her parents, so it is hard to stay in touch with them.
I feel like what Haddiyah's claim is that Yumi is actually not a bad seed, but a good seed that got influenced by the weeds in her life. After she ran away when the weeds were out of her life, she begins to get on the right track of a good seed.
Rachel's idea about Cass is interesting that she is the character whhose identity is the most influenced by the environment. Cass has a hard life that nobody treat her importantly. Her parents abuse her, the classmates make fun of her, but she grew out to be such a strong woman. Her claims of the essay might be to argue that Cass is actually an important character in the passage that got influenced by the environment the most, but not the side dish.