Flowers in the Attic
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Flowers in the Attic is a 1979 novel by V.C. Andrews, deeply controversial because of its themes of incest, child abuse, neglect, and other taboo subjects. In 1987 it was made into a film starring Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kristy Swanson, and Jeb Stuart Adams, which has been criticized by fans for drastically altering the plot in order to avoid the more controversial elements of the book. It is the first book in the Dollanganger Series
Plot
Cathy Dollanganger narrates the story as a twelve-year-old girl. The Dollangangers live a picturesque suburban life in Gladstone, Pennsylvania, in the 1950s. Christopher and Corrine Dollanganger have four children: Chris, aged fourteen years; Cathy, twelve; and twins Cory and Carrie, five. The children are called the “Dresden Dolls” because of their outstanding beauty.The family members' lives are thrown into turmoil when Christopher Sr. is killed on his thirty-sixth birthday in a car accident while returning from a business trip. Corrine falls into a depression, and soon the family is penniless. Corrine tells the children they will go and live with their wealthy grandparents, the Foxworths, in Charlottesville VA. Her father Malcolm is on his death bed, and although she was disowned by her family for something she did when she was 18, she hopes to be written back into his will and inherit his estate.
On their journey, Corrine fills the children’s minds with fantasies of how rich they are going to become. However, their arrival at Foxworth Hall is frightening: they take a train to the remote countryside at 3:00 AM and walk miles in the dark to Foxworth Hall, a gargantuan mansion. They are let in by their cold-hearted grandmother Olivia, and locked in a bedroom in the North Wing. Corrine says goodnight to her children and promises them they will have to stay there only one night.
The children remain locked in the one bedroom with a bath. When Corrine returns she has been savagely whipped by Olivia, who explains to the children that their parents were half-uncle and niece. (It is later revealed in the series that Christopher Sr. and Corrine were actually brother and sister, a fact they never knew but of which Olivia was aware.) As a result of incest, Olivia accuses the children of being “Devil’s spawn.” She will never love them and their mere existence must be kept secret forever, especially from their grandfather Malcolm.
The children are to be locked in the North Wing and will be brought food once a day. Olivia also has a list of twenty-two rules they must follow, many of which involve not “sinning” by “touching or thinking” about their “private parts,” and Olivia enforces that God will always be watching them and the sins they commit. Being young and innocent, the children do not understand what sins they could possibly commit.
Their single bedroom is connected to an enormous attic, filled with antiques and an adjoining room styled as a school classroom with children’s carvings dating back to the American Civil War, suggesting the Dollangangers are not the first children held prisoner at Foxworth Hall. Over the next three and a half years, the children find ways of entertaining themselves by reading the large number of books in the attic and elaborately decorating their dreary prison as a garden in bloom with paper flowers. They use the old Civil War clothing as costumes to perform plays such as Gone With The Wind.
At first Corrine comforts the frightened children in their imprisonment, assuring them they will only be locked away a short time until she wins back Malcolm’s love enough to tell him of his grandchildren. Until then she is enrolled at a secretarial school so she can work and provide for them. But as time passes, Corrine's interest in her children dwindles, and she becomes increasingly aware of them as a burden, visiting them less and less. She quits secretarial school and lies to them about her attempts to set them free. Corrine has no intention of ever freeing them, as she must keep their mere existence a secret if she is to inherit a fortune. She enthusiastically tells them of her fabulous vacations and socialite parties while they are suffering. She showers them with expensive gifts from Europe when they need food and sunlight. She remarries to a rich lawyer Bart Winslow. The children remain imprisoned for three and a half years.
Over the three and a half years the children’s treatment becomes worse and worse. They wither away, emaciated from malnutrition and lack of sunlight, fresh air, and medical treatment. Olivia’s physical and psychological tortures also increase on the children from violent rages to beatings, whipping, burnings, and worse. At one point, she deprives the children of food for so long they must resort to drinking each others' blood and eating raw the rodents they are able to capture.
In the hellish misery of their existence the children attempt to survive and better themselves as much as possible and a new family unit is formed with Cory and Carrie as the children and Cathy and Chris as parents. They study by reading books in the attic. Chris plans to become a doctor and Cathy practices dancing, hoping to one day become a ballerina. They also educate Cory and Carrie, teaching them to read.
As Cathy and Chris grow into young adults they fall madly in love. The sexual tension steadily increases as they often see each other naked. Though there is little sexual activity, they are openly affectionate like young lovers. Their infatuation is no doubt due to the mental trauma of their isolation, and they worry they are a repeating their parents’ mistake of an incestuous romance. Due to overwhelming sexual tension Chris ends up raping Cathy. In the movie, however, the siblings do not feel or show any sexual feelings towards each other.
The children are later able to find ways to leave the attic and explore the further reaches of Foxworth Hall, stealing money for their escape and marveling at the opulent treasures the Foxworths own. They also discover that their grandfather Malcolm is long dead and that recently, what little food they have been given was poisoned with arsenic.
Because of the inhumane treatment the children have endured, and because he unknowingly ingested the most arsenic, Cory dies and is buried heartlessly by Olivia inside the house. Suffering from extremely poor health, the three surviving children steal money and jewelry before finally escaping Foxworth Hall. Chris says they will travel to Sarasota, Florida, where the flowers blossom every day of the year.
Novel Ending Finally the elder children plan an escape, only to discover that their mother has remarried and moved away from the house where her children have been imprisoned.
Movie Ending When the children escape for the last time, they find out that their mother is remarrying. The children confront the mother and she falls over the balcony and is hanged by her wedding dress.
The most oft-remembered element of the novel is the sexual relationship that develops between an adolescent brother and sister, which has led to the novel's being banned in certain areas at different times.
Flowers In The Attic is the first book in the Dollanganger Series, and was followed by Petals On The Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows, which is actually a prequel to Flowers In The Attic and is told from the point of view of Olivia Foxworth, the grandmother of Cathy.
Differences between the book and movie versions
- In the movie, Chris and Cathy are much older than they are in the book at the beginning of their ordeal.
- The children are held captive for only one year in the movie, versus three and a half in the book.
- There is no sexual tension or incest between Chris and Cathy in the movie, whereas it was a major theme in the latter part of the book.
- In the beginning of the movie, Cathy narrates that she was her father's favorite child. In the book there is no suggestion of favoritism on the part of Christopher Sr.
- In the movie, a butler, John, knows about the children, in the book, the mother mentions the butler, but he doesn't know about the children.
- The grandmother brings food on a rolling tray to the children in the movie, in the book, she brings a bunch of trays on the first morning, then just brings up a picnic basket.
- The Dollangangers take a bus to Foxworth Hall in the movie, when they took a train in the book.
- The mother receives thirty-three slashes and an extra fifteen more in the book, where in the movie, she receives only the number of slashes for being married to Christopher Sr.
- The children sneak out to see the party for the mother's revival in the movie, where in the book, she hides them in a cabinet.
- In the movie, the grandmother knocks out Cathy with a blow on her head before shaving her hair off, where in the book, she orders Chris to cut it off, but he doesn't, so she sneaks into the room at night, drugs her, then pours hot tar on her head.
- The children receive a few gifts in the movie, in the book, they are given lots of gifts, including a TV set.
- The children don't steal money before they left Foxworth Hall in the movie, where in the book, they stole money and valuables prior to their departure.
- The mother was present when Cory dies in the movie, and buried by the watchman in the forest, waiting for the other children to die, while in the book, Cory dies and is immediately buried in the hall by their grandmother.
External links
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