I think that in Virginia C Andrews’ book “Flowers in the Attic” published in 1979, an important aspect of the book in the setting. Flowers in the attic is mainly set at Foxworth Hall where the main character and narrator, Cathy Dollanganger’s grandparents, Malcolm and Olivia Foxworth reside in an exalted mansion in Virginia. Cathy and her three siblings, Carrie, Cory & Christopher are all detained in a vacant room which consist of two big double beds, several items of furniture, curtains that are never to be unfastened and a number of paintings on the bedroom walls that represent hell to show that God is always watching. There is a closet which has a concealed stair case that heads towards to attic. The attic is narrated to be extremely large …show more content…
and also very heated.
It is untidy, grimy and cluttered with items. The children gradually learn to make the situation work and make the attic their garden to enjoy, for the sake of their younger siblings, Carrie and Cory. The aspect of setting in this novel is very affective and interesting because it shows readers the viewpoint of the children and actually makes readers feel as if they are in the attic and experiencing the hurt and suffering that the characters are facing in their teen years.
In this novel, I think that an interesting character is the main character and narrator, Cathy Dollanganger. At the beginning of this novel, Cathy is twelve years old and Cathy appears to be a happy pre-teen that still views life through rose tinted glasses. This is interesting and effective for readers, especially teenagers and girls, because it makes her character easily relatable and easy to understand because
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they relate to the idea of a pre-teen girl going through life. Life is great for Cathy, until her father passes away. Despite her feeling of sorrow, Cathy is still excited to see her new house. Foxworth Hall. At the start of the novel, Cathy adores her mother, Corinne, but as the novel continues, Cathy begins to resent and detest her. Cathy begins to have a secure relationship with her siblings after experiencing her grandmother’s mistrust and hatred. Cathy and her older brother, Chris, begin taking on the role of becoming parents to their younger siblings, Carrie and Cory, and her bond with Chris is more strengthened because of this. Cathy is a blend of contradictions. Cathy dithers between optimism that everything will work out well and anguish that her and her siblings will eventually leave the attic. Along with this, she also has a blend of feelings regarding her mother’s new husband. She has a jealousy and resentment towards her mother because of her new marriage but also kisses her new husband. Her relationship with her older brother, Chris, goes in a different direction as they become intimate with each other. This brings a feeling of confusion to Cathy and a stronger relationship with Chris as they plot their breakout from the attic. I think that the way that the author, Virginia Andrews novel “Flowers in the Attic” uses very effective and interesting writing techniques, because she uses language that would have been used by people from the time period that it is based in (1950’s at the beginning of the novel), this makes the story more believable to readers and easier to read.
I would recommend this novel for year 12’s because this novel was very refreshing to read and unlike books that most people have ever read. Though the shocking theme of incest was disturbing to readers, it also attracts readers to read the novel. It gives readers a thrill that reading something typical and acceptable would not have given readers. The theme of love and incest intertwined affected my ideas and views because it shows a different viewpoint on something widely considered disgusting amongst society. This novel had connections with my own life because it made me think that “Love is Love” and that more people should be accepting of other people’s relationships because people go through daily struggles in their relationship no matter what the circumstances are. Flowers in the attic relates to society because there have been several incidents of incest occurring within families, for example: famous cases such as King Tut & the royal family. This novel also deals with family dysfunction which could relate to readers who also deal with family dysfunction; this is interesting and effective because it makes this aspect of the
novel easy to relate to for readers as it does not show a perfect family but instead one with problems. Flowers in the attic could be compared to other texts by Virginia Andrews such as petals on the wind, garden of shadows, if there be thorns and also Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma.
Characters that have different aspect are far more interesting to read about than average characters. Callum Roe, who is the main character in the story seems to base his personality and his actions off his past events, this makes him a very interesting protagonist for an Adventure novel such as The Darkest Path. For instance the relationship Callum shares with his family. Callum has a very strong bond with his brother, James. Everything Callum does reflects back to the moments with his brother and their family. Callum has a very loving personality, it's very interesting to see how he can still find love when the whole nation is at war and him and his family are split from each other. It's important that stories have characters like Callum.
The book had a few characters that I liked, but a lot of characters that I disliked. For example Yasmine was a character that I disliked. I didn’t like her because she brought pain to Paige’s life. Yasmine and Paige were best friends for months in Sixth grade. They were constantly doing fun activities together, like having sleepovers or planning each other’s birthday parties, but all that was ruined by a mistake Yasmine made. Paige and Yasmine were at a school dance, when
I found the book to be easy, exciting reading because the story line was very realistic and easily relatable. This book flowed for me to a point when, at times, it was difficult to put down. Several scenes pleasantly caught me off guard and some were extremely hilarious, namely, the visit to Martha Oldcrow. I found myself really fond of the char...
"The bunk house was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch. Against the walls were eight bunks, five of them made up with blankets and the other three showing burlap ticking..." (17)
The main character also known as the protagonist is Catherine. She also has two nicknames which are Birdy and Little Bird. Catherine is fourteen years old, and she hates doing her embroidery and spinning. Her physical characteristics are described as “…no beauty, being sun-browned and gray-eyed” (Cushman 5). She is also “with poor eye-sight and a stubborn disposition” (Cushman 5). In any given situation with her suitors she tries to act and look her worst. She cannot act lady-like, and doesn’t like to do any of her chores. Instead “I would rather sit in an apple tree and wonder” (Cushman 5). She is very descriptive when it comes to people and sometimes uses metaphors to compare them to other objects. She is stuck talking to her birds and sometimes Perkin. Catherine is an adventurous adolescent who is stubborn, and always arguing with her father.
The house Cloudstreet is deeply symbolic in Tim Winton's novel. It is the place where as the blurb suggests "for twenty years they roister and rankle, laugh and curse until that roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts." Indeed, each aspect of the house develops its own personified characteristics from the fence "patched together from old signs" and the Lambs' rooms "like an old stroke survivor paralysed down one side". However, the library is the most significant room in symbolising the author's values and attitudes.
...he story with the various characters. Melinda’s acquaintance, Heather works hard at finding friends and becoming popular, but in the end she turns away from Melinda. The story is about the high school years. Many times when we are growing up we can’t wait to get there because we will be treated as adults, but the truth is the problems that come along when we are older can be difficult. The various clans of students help present the theme by showing us that there are many different types of people. The popular cheerleaders, the jocks, the geeks and those who are just trying to fit in. Melinda transforming the janitor’s closet symbolizes her hiding her feelings and Melinda’s inability to speak and tell people what happened to her. High school can be fun but unfortunately through the eyes of Melinda it was a very hard time.
Throughout the book the characters experienced personal growth; they learned something that changes how they look at life. In this essay I picked a character that I feel experienced the most growth and change and discuss what caused this change to happen and what they were like before the change occurred.
Sociology relates to this novel in so many different ways. The family in the story, Flowers in the Attic, written by V.C. Andrews, starts off as a family of procreation, a family established through marriage, which includes the mother (Mrs. Dollanger), the father (Mr. Dollanger), and the four children: Cathy (the oldest daughter), Chris (the second oldest son), Carrie and Corey (the young twins). A conflict begins when the father dies in a car wreck, so the mother and her four children must move in her rich parents estate because they have no money and nowhere to stay. After the father's death, the norms of the children changed. The norms of the children were to stay hidden in the basement by them selves because Mrs. Dollanger may only earn back the right to inherit her father's estate by falsifying that she has no children by her husband who was also her half-uncle. The original agreement was that they can leave the basement when their grandfather dies. The rules of the house were given by the dying grandfather that stated if Mrs. Dollanger was found to have children that she would be disinherited again.
There is a similar treatment of space in the two works, with the larger, upstairs rooms at the summer lodging and at Thornfield Hall being associated with insanity and the smaller rooms below being safer and saner. Gilman's narrator expresses an early desire to move downstairs to a smaller, saner room, but her wish is ignored. Large rooms become haunted rooms in both stories as typified by the room with the yellow wallpaper, the Red Room, and the third floor room beyond which Bertha is confined.
At first glance the narrator seems very plain and uneventful as she is the companion of the very snobby and stuck up Mrs. Van Hopper. Due to her father’s death, she must take in this demeaning and demoralizing job of ailing to the needs of Mrs. Van Hopper. Her willingness to follow every order that her companion gives her without any word back or without sticking up for herself at all gives her character the image of weakness and boringness. This job, however, is the reason why her whole life changes and changes her character into an outspoken woman.
Dawson, Terence. Physical and Psychological Settings: The Polarized Houses in Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'. 7 Nov. 2000 <http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/bronte/ebronte/dawson1.html>.
This article is written by Kelli Johnson. In this article, she explains "The Anthropomorphize of Houses in Film", or the personifications of the house in a film. Essentially, she is trying to make another character in the house and essentially humanize the house. She begins to explain the attic in the following paragraph. Johnson is trying to say that the attic is the mind, the conscious of the house, where memories, ideas, and even fears are stored. This is why she also states that is a place where supernatural being like ghosts, spirits, and demons, because they are "fears" in our life, as they are part of the other, and we don't normally associate with anything supernatural in the first place. So, when the author personified the house as an actual character, and will STILL able to make this connection with all of the past authors I referenced and still be able to make pretty good sense of all of
There is two stereotypical types of families, one where the children learn from their parents behavior and do the same as they grow up, and the other where they dislike – and do the opposite. In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, the characters are quite intricate and engaging. The story takes place in northern England in an isolated, rural area. The main characters of the novel reside in two opposing households: Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is a story of a dynamic love between two people. This love transcends all boundaries, including that over life and death. The author takes parallelism to great extends. Much of the events that happen in the first half of the story correspond to events in the second half; first generation of characters is comparable to the second generation. Many may argue that the characters are duplicates of each other and that they share many traits. Although Catherine Earnshaw and Cathy Linton are mother and daughter, their personalities and lifestyles are very different. This is a great example where the child is and behaves quite different than her mother.
the plot of this novel as it contains mature content and is very suspenseful with its