Of course, a person may start off with a base personality, but as life goes, he or she chooses who he or she wants to be. John Locke believed that the mind starts off as a blank state. One’s knowledge and everything a person is is determined by experience. One can see this in the novel when Ruth decides her dream is to work in an office. The clones live such different lives that …show more content…
For example, when a genetic variant indicates the possibility of developing a mental illness, this information can be used to direct positive behavior so that the illness develops with less severity or not at all. Therefore, if someone has a problem or the possibility of a problem, mental illness can be stopped in its tracks. In addition, researchers at the University of Liverpool recently found that while a family history of mental health conditions was the second strongest predictor of mental illness, the strongest predictor was in fact life events and experiences supporting the idea of nurture’s significant role in the development of mental health issues (“Nature vs. Nurture”). In the novel, Tommy never had parents growing up and was bullied by the kids in school. Tommy always threw tantrums and was not emotionally stable due to the rough childhood he faced