The Role Of Greed In Flowers In The Attic By V. C. Andrews

The Third Deadliest Sin

Christopher, Cathy, Carrie and Cory Dollanganger suffer from the effects of greed at the hands of their mother, Corrine, in the novel Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. Compassion gives a person the ability to see through someone’s behavior to find the truth hiding behind it. Therefore when personal gain and self indulgence overshadows the needs of others, such greed plays a prominent role in the life of those impacted by that selfish desire. To accurately describe greed is to take a cup with a hole in the bottom and try to fill it with water, and not understand why the cup never fills up. Greed stems from desire; so then it is greed, which is never satisfied, disintegrates hope, and pollutes the soul.

Before

greed overtook Corrine, her life was that of a fairy tale. To truly dissect a character, one must look at all the events leading up to the decisive moment in which that character’s path has been laid before them. The mother, Corrine, came from wealth and has known it for the better part of her entire life. Never once did she want for anything. That was until the unfortunate day where her working husband was killed and she was forced to retreat home with her four children. The catch however was that her father would not allow Corrine back if it was found that she had children. So she did what she believed was right in order to win the money and provide for her children. She lied, and hid her children away, promising them that if they hid for a certain amount of time then all would be well one day. However, with the exposure to wealth again, Corrine lost herself to the money. She became more and more obsessed with it until she finally chose it over her children. The money made Corrine lose sense of who she was. She believed the money would bring her happiness, and she was desperate for that happiness. Never once did she think she would have to take on a leadership role, her view of herself was “a pretty, useless ornament who always believed she'd have a man to take care of her.” (Andrews 31). She had lost the love and stability only a husband could provide for her, and the love she received from her children wasn’t enough. She wanted more, and this of course her children didn’t understand. So Corrine replaced the love that she lost with money. Using wealth to try and fill the gap where her heart used to reside.

The desire for that which is not needed but wanted forever feeds the void but never satisfies it, save desiring something for another. Greed is a disease that is incurable yet people fall ill of it everyday. For Corrine, she was diagnosed the day she was born into privilege. After the terrible accident which forces Corrine and her children back to Corrine’s childhood home, her desire for wanting more became prominent when she announces that she’ll consider herself to be an “heiress to a fortune beyond [the children’s] imagination” (Andrews 32). Even before having to retreat home, Corrine always lived beyond their family’s means; using money they did not have. Corrine taught herself that the world of a Barbie doll is for her. She therefore imposed this same expectation on her children. She pictures herself a delicate masterpiece able to bend anyone to her liking. She wants more and her thirst for power corrupted her so much so that she became “full of greed” in the end (Gale 6). What Corrine had was never enough for her, and the more she got, the more she wanted. The attempt to satisfy greed is a lost cause, for it is like trying to quench thirst by drinking salt water. The irony presented is comical, for the family in which Corrine was raised is strongly religious and attempted to pass that on to her. The book from which that family derives their rules reads in Ecclesiastes 5:10, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income” (Hodder & Stoughton). The Bible itself labels greed as a sin and cautions whoever places a higher value on money will never be satisfied with what they have. Corrine is the epitome of greed, for it can be deduced she will never be satisfied.

Hope is the one thing that pushes people to never give up and never quit.

Everything is built on hope. But there comes a time where the hope that once burned bright now barely glows more than candlelight. Their mothers greed and entitlement effectively extinguished that flame of hope inside her children. Due to Corrine’s selfishness and reluctant compassion, Cathy believes it is “appropriate to color hope yellow, like the sun [the children] seldom saw”, which accentuates the false hope Cathy creates in their own world in the attic (Andrews 3). Hope; reduced to a mere color that when seen provides peace but never freedom. The only reason the children are patient and bare all those years hidden is an attic was because of the promises Corrine made. Their hope is that one day all this suffering will pay off, and they can have the life they always wanted. Promises were consistently made by Corrine that one day the children’s skin will once again feel the warm kiss of the sun, and that they would inherit a fortune beyond their belief. However over those long awaiting years their mother’s increasing lack of warmth slowly chips away at the children’s hearts, especially when Corrine was reluctant to join the children in their prison of a room. The story Cathy portrays from her eyes while watching her mother slowly disappear “told a tale of tragedy” (Gale 6). Day after day the mother takes a little bit of their hope from them which only discourages them more. Each visit from their

mother fueled their hope, but each time she left that same hope was dragged out by it’s hair. Every visit had Corrine boasting about the prospects of money to excite the children; wearing her materialistic personality like a crown. She forever dangled happiness in front of the children, but always just out of reach. For she was selfish and greedily wanted it all for herself. The hope she bestowed upon the children was secretly a way to make herself feel better for keeping them locked away and deprived of all things children need.

Corrine is beautiful on the outside, but hideous on the inside.

Her children would like to believe she was beautiful on the inside once. Corrine was innocent once but sin warped her heart along with her mind and turned her towards money. Over time, she lost the love of her children. Due to this Corrine tried to buy her children’s love back with expensive gifts. She mistook affection through gifts for love. When she found that she could no longer find refuge in the love her children provided her, she gave herself over completely to the comfort of wealth. The mother the children thought they knew was gone and they “don’t think she’s ever coming back” (Andrews). Corrine sought comfort in money and she believed that would provide happiness. She was desperate to find something to cling to in her life and money was the only stable thing she saw. Even from the beginning of the novel Corrine’s thoughts were filled with images of valued green paper instead of hearts as she believed that “it’s not love that makes the world go ‘round- it’s money” (Andrews 31). Money didn’t talk back or ask questions which is exactly what she wanted. It was something she could control. As time passed while Corrine’s children were hidden away “she becomes increasingly obsessed with securing her inheritance and...the children gradually lose their mother as well” (Daily Beast 10). Corrine is trying to make up for lost love with the money she is spending, but all the money is doing is polluting her soul and

turning her into a villain. The money undoubtedly changed her, turning her into the novel’s selfish antagonist. As the children became resentful of their mother, she tried to replace the affection she lacked from them with gifts for herself and a new love interest. The greed for wealth became so intense for Corrine that she lost herself without realizing it. She was slowly casting off her children ever since her husband died and her evil heart felt no remorse of any kind. Not even for murdering her own child. Corrine tried to rid herself of her past, aka her children, by feeding them rat poison laced with powdered sugar on doughnuts. When confronted and accused of such a deed as murdering her son Corrie, she merely states “who’s Corrie?” while the eldest son retaliates, seething “he was your son and my little brother. And you killed him!” (Andrews). Corrine is so blinded by the shine of her jewelry and the beauty of those green slips of paper that she gave herself over to the ever abominable pull of greed. She let herself become too wrapped up in fortune that she successfully murdered one of her own children who she used to love so dearly.

In conclusion, Corrine let greed have it’s way with her and she was forever changed by it’s sticky claws. Andrews accentuates the brutal effects greed can leave on someone, Corrine in particular. Due to her selfishness, Corrine could never be satisfied when it came to materialistic pursuits, she murdered her children’s hope for a better life, and ultimately ended up polluting her own soul. Greed is the third deadliest sin, and it is undoubtedly deadly. Death in body, mind, and soul surrounds this family. The physical death of the youngest son Corrie, the emotional death of the eldest daughter Cathy, and the spiritual death of the mother, Corrine. The thirst for wealth corrupted her, and the stains of Corrine’s mistakes will forever reside in her blackened heart.