YMMV / Seeds of Yesterday

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Melodie's behavior is explained in the book as indifference and estrangement from her newly disabled husband, but the actual symptoms read as severe depression. She stops maintaining her personal hygiene, withdraws from the family, stays in her room most of the time, loses interest in her previous hobbies and activities, can't care for her newborns to the point that a nurse must be brought in, loses her appetite (literally every scene in which she's shown eating describes her as "listless" and "nibbling," and it's remarked how infrequently she shows up for meals at all and how much weight she's lost), and becomes unable to hold a meaningful conversation. More ominously, when she does speak, she expresses hopelessness and a fatalistic certainty that nothing will ever change. What's troubling is that this starts the night Jory's injured and lasts for well over six months. In clinical terms, that strongly implies that her depression isn't caused by the accident, but that the accident triggered a preexisting, undiagnosed mental illness.
• Broken Base: Bart and Cindy's relationship. The Incest Subtext between them is heavy and intentional—but what to make of that? Is there a soft side to it that could win out? Or is it just a hideous relationship based on spite that will never be anything other than destructive to both of them?
  • Within the book itself Cathy sees Cindy and Bart on tv together singing, which only confirms they have patched things up but is still something one could read subtext into.
• Narm: Cathy's death from old age in the movie, given that Rachel Carpani (her actress) is only in her late thirties and not a lick of effort was made to make her look older.
  • Considering Cathy's in her early 50s when she dies, old age makeup wouldn't really be all that necessary.
• Tear Jerker: Cathy's death Especially so, in the movie.
  • Melodie's "Dear John" letter to Jory, in which she tearfully derides herself as a "coward" for her failure to deal with his paralysis. Cathy can't bring herself to tell him that their marriage wouldn't have lasted even if he hadn't been injured, having realized that what Melodie said was indeed true, that she couldn't cope with the changes that life might bring.
• The Woobie: It's easier to feel sorrier for Bart than for anyone else in the family. He never seems to have a fulfilling relationship, romantic or otherwise, and his parents favor his older brother and younger sister (both of them attractive dancers) over him. Even his own mother thinks that he will never find true love due to Like Parent, Like Spouse (in some fairness, she is right). However, his mother did feel this unconsciously, as she expresses that she always loved him just as much as his siblings, it is just his dark behavior distanced him from the rest of the family, and she had tremendous pity for him when he was a child.
  • His mother did wish he will find love though, but most likely knows he will not due to his incestous feelings for her. To be fair, though Bart feels betrayed by his family, in truth, he did betray them, as his mother points out to him. His anger and violence might be justified, but does not excuse the means, Bart does do things to provoke his family. His parents might prefer his siblings to him and his nephew and niece, but because of the unkindness he shows them, because they felt betrayed by him, though it is not entirely one sided, and again, his mother has felt this favoritism unintentionally. They do love him though just as much though, Bart evens admits during the eulogy that his father was a great father, and Bart and Cathy do make peace. In the note his mother leaves at the end, it basically sums up that she and Chris have loved all their children equally, but for Bart it was not too late and it will not ever be too late. It is probably one of the most heartwarming moments of the book.