The Bad Seed

Response to The Bad Seed

The 1956 version of The Bad Seed depicts the story of a seemingly normal family consisting of the happily married Mrs. And Mr. Penmark and their “perfect” eight-year-old daughter, Rhoda. However, not long into the film, we become aware that Christine Penmark, the mother, has some serious concerns about her daughter’s behavior. After an incident at a school picnic, in which one of Rhoda’s classmates, last to be seen by Rhoda, drowned in a lake, Christine, as well as Rhoda’s teacher, begin to suspect the blonde beauty of foul play. Trying to be a protective mother, Christine openly defends Rhoda from her teacher’s accusations, but it is clear to the viewers that Christine has her own suspicions. After the teacher leaves, Christine finds the penmanship medal that Claude, the boy who drowned, was wearing at the picnic. It is clear to Christine that Rhoda was responsible in some way for Claude’s death, and connects this incident with another from Rhoda’s past, in which someone else parished on her behalf. At the same time all of this is going on, Christine is trying to remember her own childhood. She expresses to her friend, Monica that she has always felt that she was adopted. After confronting her own father, Rhoda’s “grandfather” and renowned criminologist, she finds out that she was adopted after all. To make things worse, her father, Richard Bravo, tells Christine that her biological mother was a famous serial killer. Now that the audience knows that Rhoda is the grandchild of a serial killer, the debate can be made of the origin of Rhoda’s violent crime and psychotic personality. Two characters, friends of the Pawmarks and also psychologists, discuss this question. Do acts of violence, particularly at a young age, happen because of a heritable gene and can therefore, not be avoided, or do they happen because of circumstance and the influence of the environment in which the child was raised? This question is still debated...