Bad Blood Quotes

“Bad Blood”, by Will Weaver, is a short story about a teenager named Jared. Jared is from a family of thieves and con artists. His family has now settled in a rustic Ohio town where people still leave their house and car windows open. Jared meets an elderly woman by the name of Mrs. Anderson, whose lawn he soon mows under the claim of “Boy Scout Service”. However, his real intentions are to manipulate her and steal her money and possessions. Jared soon finds a Corvette in her garage and asks her for the car. Not knowing Jared’s true intentions, Mrs. Anderson gladly gives Jared the yellow Corvette. He rejoices, finally having the object he has set his sights on for so long. Jared from “Bad Blood” is not a hero because he harnesses innocent people and manipulates them, two qualities a hero will never possess.

This is shown when Jared describes his family. “But we passed for Italian (Righetti was my favorite name so far), and Italians get a pass in the Midwest because they are associated with Italian restaurants. Nobody eats more than Midwesterners; it's why they’re so fat”(41). This illustrates Jared and his family trying to exploit the people in their neighborhood, as they are from the Midwest. In this manner, Jared does not express a crucial quality of heroes, not trying to take advantage of others. However, Jared exhibits some character traits of a hero near the end of the story. Supporters of Jared’s disputable status as a hero claim Jared cared about Mrs. Anderson. However, Jared only acts like he cares about Mrs. Anderson to achieve his goal of obtaining the Corvette. Jared then manipulates her into giving him the Corvette and he succeeds:

"Why, you're always helping out around here," she continued, like she hadn't heard me. She actually came over and patted me on the head—it was the first time we had