Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Review on the Haunted Dollhouse
I enjoyed so much this book, I am glad that my dear Virginia agreed to recommend this gem. As Virginia said in the introduction the pictures are stunningly beautiful, that sepia color really gets into you dreams.. and nightmares! You can read this book in less than an hour and still feel that you accomplished something really important in going through the pages. The main idea in my head is that this is a very allegorical book where there are a lot of riddles meant to make you reflect about your own life but in a very intriguing and fun way. I promise this book is harmless ;) So the story is that I accepted the invitation to go to the world of yesterday when things seemed sweeter and journeyed with Sarah this forbidden Dollhouse. I love dollhouses and although I don't thing I have gotten exactly the dollhouse that Sarah received, I think I kind of get the idea.
V.C Andrews on Facebook.
My experience with V.C Andrews has been a very positive one, I have got to sense really deep emotions and also a lot of pleasure that I don't get very easily from other authors. This is the reason why I felt so happy when I found out about V.C Andrews groups on Facebook, it was a very good opportunity to get to know people that actually liked V.C Andrews and were willing to share serious and fun conversations about the books. So there I go and join the groups and start talking to others and I was amazed to see and learn new thing about the books, it inspired me to continue reading and creating things in my life. I think there's no other author in facebook that attracts so much attention as V.C Andrews. That's something very special.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The haunted dollhouse
It wasn’t my birthday. Yet, a large and very heavy package
came in the mail addressed to me. Like most people, I enjoy opening unexpected
packages. Like Sarah in this book, I opened my heavy package with anticipation.
I found, to my surprise, a familiar kind of nightmare in Sarah’s story.
With Sarah I stepped into another world, sepia colored, a
monotone twilight zone that immediately evoked memories of my own childhood
when I had dreams of someday possessing the dollhouse of my dreams. Unlike
Sarah, no one ever gave me the kind of dollhouse I really wanted. After reading
the text, and viewing the stunningly eerie photographs in this book, I am glad
that kind of dollhouse was denied me.
When we are young and vulnerable, and subject to the
pressures, the whims and the control of those older, stronger and presumably
wiser, we construct within our mind a sanctuary.
In times of distress and disappointment we seek to disappear
and fade into the perfect environment where we can control our own destinies.
We don’t realize when we are young that there is no perfect place, and if there
were how then we would entertain ourselves?
In fantasy most of us can only linger a short while before
we are forced back to face up to those problems that drove us into fantasy in
the first place.
With a strangely haunted feeling, I drifted into the
dollhouse with Sarah, enthralled by the déjà vu send of having been there
before as perhaps all little girls-and maybe boys, too-have been there before.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Virginia's Article for First Romance
Dubbed "the fastest-selling author in the United States" by The New York Times, V.C. (Virginia Cleo)
Andrews has become one of the publishing industry's most phenomenal success stories.She is
the author of the enormously popular Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns,
and fourth in her series of thrillers, My Sweet Audrina. All shot to the heights of best-seller lists
nationwide, with each boasting in-print figures in the millions. Though not typically an author of the Romance
genre, Virginia has recently become very much intrigued by it. She concedes that one day she may complete a Romance herself-e
especially now that he's got "the feel" having written Love's Savage Desire for Your First Romance
Virginia believes that stories are everywhere to be found in our lives. She keeps her ideas fresh and invigorating
by piecing together bit from her own life and the lives of others and, of course, inventing a little as well. Virginia enjoys
giving her characters free rein to do as they please. She insists on letting them take over their own
stories, at times surprising even her. Virginia suggests new writers keep their characters constantly thwarted, frustrated, and
in trouble through a novel: never let up until the story's end
A first draft, containing some dialogue and description, can be written by Virginia in a little as four hours;
she prefers this technique to an outline. A completed book can take her anywhere from five month to a year, depending on how well she knows her characters. She will not tolerate radio or television
except the news) while working, and when real creativity strikes, she works for long solitary hours without interruption.
Virginia feels that beginning writers must never write the kind of books they themselves would not enjoy reading
Once having decided upon a specific genre she advises them to read as much as possible within it, take notes on story transitions, and
summarize plots. This, she says, will give beginning writers a feel of how a novel is put together.
Andrews has become one of the publishing industry's most phenomenal success stories.She is
the author of the enormously popular Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns,
and fourth in her series of thrillers, My Sweet Audrina. All shot to the heights of best-seller lists
nationwide, with each boasting in-print figures in the millions. Though not typically an author of the Romance
genre, Virginia has recently become very much intrigued by it. She concedes that one day she may complete a Romance herself-e
especially now that he's got "the feel" having written Love's Savage Desire for Your First Romance
Virginia believes that stories are everywhere to be found in our lives. She keeps her ideas fresh and invigorating
by piecing together bit from her own life and the lives of others and, of course, inventing a little as well. Virginia enjoys
giving her characters free rein to do as they please. She insists on letting them take over their own
stories, at times surprising even her. Virginia suggests new writers keep their characters constantly thwarted, frustrated, and
in trouble through a novel: never let up until the story's end
A first draft, containing some dialogue and description, can be written by Virginia in a little as four hours;
she prefers this technique to an outline. A completed book can take her anywhere from five month to a year, depending on how well she knows her characters. She will not tolerate radio or television
except the news) while working, and when real creativity strikes, she works for long solitary hours without interruption.
Virginia feels that beginning writers must never write the kind of books they themselves would not enjoy reading
Once having decided upon a specific genre she advises them to read as much as possible within it, take notes on story transitions, and
summarize plots. This, she says, will give beginning writers a feel of how a novel is put together.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Inspiration
Why would you care of children made of words?
you who are made of immortal flesh and blood
you who are made of immortal flesh and blood
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Bible Citation
This is the meaning of the first bible citation we find at the beginning of Flowers in the Attic:
Woe to you who strive with your Maker, earthen vessels with the potter! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, "What are you making"? or "Your work has no handles"?
After Cathy lost her father in a car accident and then brought to live at Foxworth Hall, she started doubting God as the best judge and until the end of the novel, the reader can see that she is still left with a feeling of resentment towards God.
Even though in the prologue of her book she asks God for help, saying that God in his infinite mercy would help her find a publisher who would put her words into a book, the ending may suggest that Cathy still holds a grudge against God. I like to explain the contradiction by noting that by the time Cathy wrote the book, she may had matured more and she may had also realized that she may had committed acts that made her situation at Foxworth Hall even more difficult. The narrator point's of view of God had changed since she left Foxworth Hall and began writing her account of what during the time she was imprisioned at this place.
This bible citation in itself implies that you should not contend with your maker: God, because at the end you will lose. And this Bible citation may also be used by the author to ask in a metaphorical way, why is there so much suffering and dead in the world.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Ada or Ardor
Vladimir Nabokov’s masterpiece Ada or Ardor has been very acclaimed by the critics since its publication in 1969, like Flowers in the Attic, this novel deals with challenging family dynamics. Both novels are presented as family chronicles taking place in not conventional scenarios and narrated with an elegant and simple prose that is both sensual and satiric.
Ada or Ardor takes place in an alternative historical frame in a place called Antiterra, Flowers in the Attic takes place in the known United States but most of the plot takes place in the room and attic of an old estate with peculiar characteristics. Both scenarios accomplish not letting the reader get very strong references of the cultural and historical happenings of the time in order to give more intensity and mystery to the story.
Even though the common subjects, both stories are very different when it comes to the plot and the character’s life experiences, it’s instead in the style of writing where these two works of fiction find more similarities, both novels are written with a very simple yet very deceptive prose that captivates the reader with its sensuality and satiric power.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Dealing
Chris is an aspiring doctor, but this dream becomes more a case for frustration than happiness when he realizes how difficult and expensive is to become a doctor. Cathy tries to be understanding to Chris's frustration but at the same time she realizes that her intution urges her to leave Foxworth Hall before is too late.

Friday, July 22, 2011
A Love Post
The world may be an attic that we are all trying to escape, some philosophies teach that if you don't find real love in this life, you will be trapped in the world . I don't know if it's true, but finding true love may mean different things to every person. Things get better when love guides your life, although in doing that you choose a more difficult path, it will be worth it and you will find true happiness. This is a drawing trying to show the complexity of making sense of what sometimes doesn't make sense. Also an attempt to see FITA more as an allegorical novel.
Flowers in The Attic by ~crobl005 on deviantART
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The Road to Riches
The Road to Riches
"It was totally dark when we stepped from the train, and as the conductor had warned, there was not a house in sight. Alone in the night, far from any sign of civilization, we stood and waved good-bye to the conductor on the train steps..." ( page 37, Flowers in the Attic, August 2005)
Friday, July 1, 2011
Drawing a Portrait: Catherine L. Dollanganger
Catherine is the protagonist of Flowers in the Attic and she is a the second born of Christopher Dollanganger Sr. and Corrine Dollanganger (nee Foxworth). She describes herself as someone who loves to dance ballet since an early age, with wavy blond hair, blue eyes, and a very athletic body. She owned a sterling-silver music box with a pink ballerina inside which she left behind when she moved to Foxworth Hall (a present from her diseased father). Due to the traumatic experiences at Foxworth Hall, Cathy become skeptic to people but also becomes wise because of the knowledge she gains through her painful stay in Foxworth hall. The lines below pretty much reflect the mental state of this character .
“Where was that fragile, golden-fair Dresden doll I used to be? Gone. Gone like porcelain turned into steel- made into someone who would always get what she wanted, no matter who or what stood in her way.” (Page 379, Flowers in the Attic, pocket books, August 2005)
She is forced to mature fast because of her mother’s abandonment, so now has to learn to take care of herself and also of her sister Carrie with the help of her older brother Chris. This is a strong force of stress in their lives now
“Now that our time to depart was so near, I felt frightened. It was big out there. We’d be on our own. What would the world think of us now? We weren’t beautiful like we used to be, only pale and sickly attic mice with long flaxen hair, wearing expensive but ill-fitting clothes and sneakers on our feet. Chris and I had educated ourselves from reading so many books, and television had taught us much about violence, about greed, about imagination, but it had taught us hardly anything that was practical and useful in preparing us to face reality.
Survival, That’s what TV should teahk innocent children. How to live in a world that really doesn’t give a damn about anyone but their own- and sometimes, not even their own.” (Page 354, Flowers in the Attic, pocket books, August 2005)
Flowers In the Attic is above anything a survival story, Cathy is now experiencing a very harsh reality as they need to provide for themselves in an outside world that may be as hostile and cruel as her own world at Foxworth Hall.
I wanted to do a portrait that shows Cathy’s personality and strong character, but also her vulnerability and sweetness, regardless of how the real Cathy looked, or how you imagine her, you are looking for someone that besides having blond hair, blue ice, and pretty features, also shows character, vulnerability and wisdom, and a very classy look. There is also an incipient sensuality to her looks, although malnourished which I tried to show in the darkness down her eyes, and her slim body.
The process for drawing this portrait, first i tried to set up her face, I drew Cathy in her teenage years yes is about fifteen at the end of the novel, so I was targeting approximately about this time. Some people like to use mechanical pencils, but I just use a normal pencil for this part.
Step. 1
Step 2.
I start defining the features that I want to get, a pretty girl, I pay attention to her eyes to show more her personality
Step 3. At this step I'm working on adding value or shading the portrait, Cathy has long, beautiful long hair which may take me more time, that is what I'm doing now,but here you can idea of what I'm trying to accomplish with a teenager Cathy. I'll be showing more pics of the lips and eyes, as well as the finished portrait very soon.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Olivia Foxworth: a Case of Mind Control
This character is a synonym of violence in the novel, Olivia herself has been a victim of abuse and mind control at various points in her life which lead her to become a religious fanatic, specially influenced by the old testament in the Bible. This will mean suffering and abuse for the Dollanganger siblings during their confinement to the point of things getting very overwhelming. For the most part is very difficult to understand her sadistic behaviour as she become accomplice of murdr.
Since the beginning of the Dollangangers stay at Foxworth Hall, she gave to the siblings a list of rules to follow and if they were to disobey, they would be accordingly punished. Some of these rules are the following:
One: You are always to be fully dressed.
Two: You will never take the Lord's name in vain, and will always say grace before each meal. And if I am not in the room to see that you do this, you may be sure that He above will be listening and watching.
Three: you are never to open the draperies, not even to peek out.
Four: You will never speak to me unless I speak to you First.
These rules are the beginning of the mind control that the children would suffer at Foxworth Hall: submission, shame, and fear would become the norm in this room. The most striking thing is how the sunlight is forbidden and how they will be in darkness, fear and submission. The rest of the rules have the same tone and are just a violent attempt of mind control.
The following is an image of the siblings after one episode in which Olivia rejects one of the presents given to her. In general this shows how they feel about the rejection, they suffer at this house.
Since the beginning of the Dollangangers stay at Foxworth Hall, she gave to the siblings a list of rules to follow and if they were to disobey, they would be accordingly punished. Some of these rules are the following:
One: You are always to be fully dressed.
Two: You will never take the Lord's name in vain, and will always say grace before each meal. And if I am not in the room to see that you do this, you may be sure that He above will be listening and watching.
Three: you are never to open the draperies, not even to peek out.
Four: You will never speak to me unless I speak to you First.
These rules are the beginning of the mind control that the children would suffer at Foxworth Hall: submission, shame, and fear would become the norm in this room. The most striking thing is how the sunlight is forbidden and how they will be in darkness, fear and submission. The rest of the rules have the same tone and are just a violent attempt of mind control.
The following is an image of the siblings after one episode in which Olivia rejects one of the presents given to her. In general this shows how they feel about the rejection, they suffer at this house.
| Scene at Foxworth Hall |
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Looking into the Minds of Sociopaths
Many can classify Olivia, Corrine and Malcolm Foxworth’s behavior in this novel as that of a sociopath, another book where I found a similar situation is in The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. The author of this novel like Virginia C. Andrews explored the subject of sociopaths and how dangerous they can be to the people around them. These two books are not for the faint of heart but they do give a realistic portrayal of sociopathic behavior. Corrine and Olivia are not serial killers and do not pose a threat for people in general, but in the scenario given in Flowers in the Attic they show their cruelest and most basic side in dealing with the Dollanganger siblings. These women do not want to think what they do is wrong, so they look for refuge in religion, debauchery and eccentricities to forget about their secret lives as tortures of the children in the novel. In the case of Corrine, she mentally is trying to pretend that they do not exist, so she chooses to murder their children in a slow manner as a way of trying not to deal with the fact she is commiting infantacide. Olivia is for the reader a little bit mystifying because we don't know much about her past, but is hinted that she may have been a mind control victim in her childhood.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Flowers in the Attic: Escaping the House of Incest
"She led me into the house of incest. It was the only house which was not included in the twelve houses of the zodiac. it could neither be reached by the route of the milky way, not by the glass ship through whose transparent bottom one could follow the outline of the lost continents, nor by following the arrows pointing the direction of the wind, nor by following the voice of the mountain echos."
Anais Nin (The House of Incest)
The House of Incest by Anais Nin and Flowers in the Attic by V.C Andrews are two titles that you may not hear in the same sentence very frequently; in fact, most of V.C Andrews readers may not be aware of Anais Nin’s work, and vice versa. But the content in these two books share a lot of peculiar and interesting similarities. In appearance, they are very different, The House of Incest doesn’t tell the story of a family, and it’s instead a very surrealistic and metaphorical work about the narrator trying to escape a dream in which she is trapped. Flowers in the Attic doesn’t give the appearance of a surrealistic and metaphorical novel as Anais’s book. For example, the subject of incest is not dealt in The House of Incest in a literal way, like it’s the case of Flowers in the Attic where you have a explicit case of incest between the members of the Dollanganger family. Anais Nin uses the word incest to refer to selfish love, and loving in others what you see of yourself. Although there is a passage in the book where she gives an explicit example referring to the character of Lot in the Bible:
" Stumbling from room to room I came into the room of paintings, and there sat Lot with his hand upon his daughter's breast while the city burned behind them, cracking open and falling into the sea. There where h sat with his daughter the Oriental rug was red and stiff, but the turmoil which shook them showed through the rocks splitting around them, through the earth yawning beneath their feet, through the trees flaming up like torches, through the sky smoking and smouldering red, all cracking with the joy and the terror of their love. Joy of the father's hand upon the daughter's breast, the joy of the fear racking her. Her costume tightly pressed around her so that her breasts heave and swell under his fingers, while the city is rent by lightning, and splits under the teeth of fire, great blocks of gaping ripped city sinking with the horror of obscenity, and falling into the sea with the hissof the eternally damned. No cry of horror from Lot and his daughter but from the city in flames, from an unquenchable desire of father and daughter, of brother and sister, mother and son."
p. 52ff. (The House of Incest)
" Stumbling from room to room I came into the room of paintings, and there sat Lot with his hand upon his daughter's breast while the city burned behind them, cracking open and falling into the sea. There where h sat with his daughter the Oriental rug was red and stiff, but the turmoil which shook them showed through the rocks splitting around them, through the earth yawning beneath their feet, through the trees flaming up like torches, through the sky smoking and smouldering red, all cracking with the joy and the terror of their love. Joy of the father's hand upon the daughter's breast, the joy of the fear racking her. Her costume tightly pressed around her so that her breasts heave and swell under his fingers, while the city is rent by lightning, and splits under the teeth of fire, great blocks of gaping ripped city sinking with the horror of obscenity, and falling into the sea with the hissof the eternally damned. No cry of horror from Lot and his daughter but from the city in flames, from an unquenchable desire of father and daughter, of brother and sister, mother and son."
p. 52ff. (The House of Incest)
Incest is a very taboo subject that creates shock and even disgust in the reader. Although , it was precisely this reaction what made this subject very appealing to many artist and writers, specially the 19th Romantics, which saw in incest a perfect theme for them to fit with ideas about death and sex . Famous works that deal with this subject is Nabokov’s Ada or Ardor: A family Chronicle and Louis Malle’s Murmur of the Heart. But did Nin’s work influence Flowers in the Attic? An influence can be assumed , even though the conexion may not be very explicit, Anais’s book is a very personal work influenced by things that happened to her and also very controversial like Andrew’s novel. It is a well known fact that Anaïs Nin was having an incestuous relationship with her father when she published her book, members of her family were supposedly horrified about this because they thought that the book was going to be an exposé of their relationship. But it was not the case, even though there is a reference to Lot’s incestuous relationship with her daughter in her work. Besides the obvious resemblance between Nin and Andrews’ books in respect to the title House of Incest which can be seen in the form of a house where family members have love affairs accompanied also by all the negative connotations that this title brings to mind, there are other similarities between these two works that caught my attention and I think may be a good field for further analysis.
Another interpretation of The House of Incest is that trying to live in a self-created world full of pleasure, instead of living in the real world full of pleasure and pain is a mistake. Self created worlds are full of demons and always degenerate into nightmares. The world in Flowers in the Attic is one that in a way fits this decription. On one side, you have Catherine, the narrator, who live in a room which is hinted to be the closest thing to hell, and her mother Corrine is on a very different plane where she enjoys all the benefits that money can give, luxurious trips, expensive clothes and gifts, a handsome and younger husband, people’s attention and admiration, everything but piece of mind. Corrine’s created world full of pleasure is in reality the worst type of nightmare since she is living a double life and in neither of these two lives she can be fully herself, she is always putting an act. I think House of Incest can be a book used as reference when analyzing the mental state that the characters in Flowers in the Attic find themselves completely absorbed, like the narrator in The House of Incest, every character in Flowers in the Attic are looking for dramatic ways to escape their reality . The Dollanganger siblings want definetely to escape Foxworth Hall where they are being slowly and painfully murdered, and Corrine wants to escape her past and start a new life with her new husband. In reality, it’s not that simple because lives are going to be destroyed in order for Corrine to achieve her ideal world.
The House of Incest is an excellent book, and Anais Nin is a very intuitive and extremely talented writer as Andrews, both have different ways of exploring the human psyche, but both definitely accomplished to create realistic messages for their audience.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Drawing a Portrait: Christopher Dollanganger
Figure Drawing is always an exiting pastime, here I will be attempting to do a portrait of Christopher Dollanganger from Flowers in the Attic.
Christopher is the oldest sibling, and in the novel Chris is the one who has the strongest conexion with her mother: Corrine Foxworth. He is described in the book as someone with attractive features, and a boyish attitude. I tried to look for a face with this characteristics, and this is what I ended up sketching.
Thinking about the character that you are drawing, helps you to focus more. Things that I consider about Christopher is that he is very authoritative sometimes to the point of being a little bit condescending to Cathy, I noticed. so I think a face that shows a little bit of petulance may be also appropriate for Chris, even though he is mainly described to be very optimitistic. But, I am not buying it, I think he knows how to hide his fellings very well.
So it seems that Chis hair is very curly to the point of being a mess, at some point in the novel, he gets a haircut by Cathy. I wanted to put hints of blond hair and give the impression of coarse hair.
Christopher is the oldest sibling, and in the novel Chris is the one who has the strongest conexion with her mother: Corrine Foxworth. He is described in the book as someone with attractive features, and a boyish attitude. I tried to look for a face with this characteristics, and this is what I ended up sketching.
Christopher is also blond with cerulean blue eyes like Cathy, Cory and Carrie. I tried to draw him when he was around sixteen, seventeen years old. This is the pencil I used, charcoal B57-2b for the shading,
I also used a conventional pencil to initially draw the face. It took my quite some time, but it was very fun, If you are trying to learn to draw, or if you draw already, you’ll know that have your eraser in hand is very important, it helps to improve the quality of your drawing, I always make mistakes, and everyone who draws that I know also make mistakes, but erasing and trying again is always a good option. Here I started drawing
So it seems that Chis hair is very curly to the point of being a mess, at some point in the novel, he gets a haircut by Cathy. I wanted to put hints of blond hair and give the impression of coarse hair.
And I ended up with this. Well I may not have done the best drawing, but doing this portrait helped me to visualize and understand better the Chris that V.C Andrews created. I was left with the idea that he was most likely an Adonis, after reading all the references of beauty in the Dollanganger family and Cathy's descriptions of her brother. But most importantly is that he was very ambitious and his goal in life was to be a doctor.
Cathy and Christopher have many interests in common they both enjoy reading, and philosophysing. Christopher is specially good at painting using watercolors and is very studious and dedicated to learning more about medicine. He is psychologically a very healthy character, but the stress of living at Foxworth Hall took the best of him and eventually led him to abusive behavior towards his sister. Although the level of complexity of this relationship may not be suitable for everyone, one can infer that some of his behavior was the result of the mind control that was taking place at Foxworth Hall. The Gothic Horror commentator Cosette Kies says that the intimacy between the siblings in the novel is not that of abuse but rather of forbidden lust. This subject may have Freudian undertones that deserve better exploration.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Flowers in the Attic: Corrine Foxworth
Corrine Foxworth, the mother of the Dollanganger siblings, has become the worst mother in the history of literature, check this list http://journal.bookfinder.com/2009/05/worst-mothers-in-literature.html. for corroboration. This character very well deserves the title since She deprived her children from any contact with the outside world for more than three years. And then she gradually started poisoning them. Most people would say that her ambitions and desire to escape her reality are the main causes for her to want to murder her children. And this maybe just the reason, she was a loving mother or at least a caring mother before her husband passed away and then she had to take her children to live with her parents at Foxworth.
Infantacide and child abuse is a very serious issue explored in Flowers in the Attic which makes the novel very hard to digest, because most of the violence in the book is directed towards children that can not defend themselves. For this reason, some critics have called Flowers in the Attic a "ferocious fairy tale" (V.C Andrews critical Companion) because we get to see allusions throughout the novel to fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Snow White & Cinderella. But, unlike fairy tales in which good children always survive at the end, in Flowers in the Attic, the Dollangangers siblings can suffer unbearable torments and even die.
The Dollanganger's situation is very harrowing, although they live in a luxurious estate where their mother is always giving them expensive gifts, they can not enyoy the outdoors, and the food that they eat is very plain and repettive for most of the time. And as the Dollanganger children stay at Foxworth Hall grows more dangerous, the gifts start growing more expensive and unnecessary.
The danger of the Dollangangers dying in the novel is specially hinted in two incidents: the grandmother's gift to the children of a pot of chrysanthemums and her rejection of the tapestry the children did for her. Althought it is Corrine who ultimately poisons the children with arsenic, the grandmother is the vehicle who takes the poison to the children. This gift of flowers that represent autumn- that season when blosooms die- and her refusal of their offering seems to imply that she is not expecting the children to live long.
Flowers in the Attic is a book that makes you think about the real motivations behind people's actions. As I read the book, I always wondered why Olivia Foxworth someone that is so religious, would accept to be an accomplice of murder. Why not just deny to Corrine and her children entrance to Foxworth Hall? It is also disturbingly hinted that Corrine may have known from the very beginning that her children were going to die in the room. It seems that the grandmother is not really motivated by religion for her cruel behaviour against her children, obviously she has other reasons more related to personal failures to behave in this bitter, sadistic way.
Corrine, on her part, is heavily influenced on one side by the inheritance, but also her relationship with Bart Winslow, the young and attractive lawyer, plays an important role in her decision of not leaving Foxworth Hall and saving in this way the life of her children. Soon after her honey moon, she started sending the poisoned doughnouts to her children, one thing to notice is that this was months before the codicil was read. Corrine's cruelty, cowardice and immaturity makes you angry because she could have asked other people for help, but instead she prefers to stay with her younger husband and her exorbitant inheritance.
Infantacide and child abuse is a very serious issue explored in Flowers in the Attic which makes the novel very hard to digest, because most of the violence in the book is directed towards children that can not defend themselves. For this reason, some critics have called Flowers in the Attic a "ferocious fairy tale" (V.C Andrews critical Companion) because we get to see allusions throughout the novel to fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Snow White & Cinderella. But, unlike fairy tales in which good children always survive at the end, in Flowers in the Attic, the Dollangangers siblings can suffer unbearable torments and even die.
The danger of the Dollangangers dying in the novel is specially hinted in two incidents: the grandmother's gift to the children of a pot of chrysanthemums and her rejection of the tapestry the children did for her. Althought it is Corrine who ultimately poisons the children with arsenic, the grandmother is the vehicle who takes the poison to the children. This gift of flowers that represent autumn- that season when blosooms die- and her refusal of their offering seems to imply that she is not expecting the children to live long.
Flowers in the Attic is a book that makes you think about the real motivations behind people's actions. As I read the book, I always wondered why Olivia Foxworth someone that is so religious, would accept to be an accomplice of murder. Why not just deny to Corrine and her children entrance to Foxworth Hall? It is also disturbingly hinted that Corrine may have known from the very beginning that her children were going to die in the room. It seems that the grandmother is not really motivated by religion for her cruel behaviour against her children, obviously she has other reasons more related to personal failures to behave in this bitter, sadistic way.
| Sketch of Corrine |
Corrine, on her part, is heavily influenced on one side by the inheritance, but also her relationship with Bart Winslow, the young and attractive lawyer, plays an important role in her decision of not leaving Foxworth Hall and saving in this way the life of her children. Soon after her honey moon, she started sending the poisoned doughnouts to her children, one thing to notice is that this was months before the codicil was read. Corrine's cruelty, cowardice and immaturity makes you angry because she could have asked other people for help, but instead she prefers to stay with her younger husband and her exorbitant inheritance.
The World of Carrie
Carrie is one of the twins in Flowers in the Attic, Cathy describes her as a very cute, " doll like" talkative girl who loves to play with her teacups and dolls. Here, I tried to draw a portrait that transmitted her vivacious personality using pencils.
I'll post more portraits of her and her siblings as well. Something I really like from the Dollanganger twins like the way they cared for each other.
Monday, May 30, 2011
The Foxworth Hall Room
Foxworth Hall is a very intimidating place with many halls and rooms. The vision of Foxworth Hall compared to the house where Cathy lived in Gladstone is very striking because it's a place where the children, even their mother were not expecting to live. The moment the children arrived to this estate, they are immediately locked away in a very secluded room. Cathy describes this room where she stays as large but cluttered.
" I sat up and looked around this room that was, perhaps, sixteen-by-sixteen. Large, but with two double beds, a massive highboy, a large dresser, two overstuffed chairs, a dressing table between the two front windows, with its own small chair, plus a mahogany table with four chairs, it seemed a small room.Cluttered. Between the two big beds was another table with a lamp. Altogether there were four lamps in the room. Beneath all the ponderous dark furniture was a faded Oriental red rug with gold fringe. At one time it must have been a beautiful thing, but now it was old and worn. The walls were papered in cream with white flocking. The bedspreads were gold-colored and made of some heavy fabric like quilted satin. There were three paintings on the walls. Golly-lolly, they did steal your breath away! Grotesque demons chased naked people in underground caverns colored mostly red. Unearthly monsters devoured other pitiful souls. Even as their legs still kicked, they dangled from slobbering mouths filled with long, shiny, sharp teeths..."
(Flowers in the Attic, page51)
If you try to visualize it, you will notice how stressfull this place really is to the point of insanity. The old furniture and the fact that the children can't open the windows make it very unberable for them to live. The following is the sketch I used to draft a more detailed room.
There are two beds inside the room, and a table with four chairs for them to eat, a bathroom, and a closet with access to the attic. I think this is pretty much how the room would look like,
I find this room very peculiar, and I wonder if there are actual houses that have rooms like this one. Virginia C. Andrew was very creative in creating this room, and I wish we had more descriptions of the rest of the house.
" I sat up and looked around this room that was, perhaps, sixteen-by-sixteen. Large, but with two double beds, a massive highboy, a large dresser, two overstuffed chairs, a dressing table between the two front windows, with its own small chair, plus a mahogany table with four chairs, it seemed a small room.Cluttered. Between the two big beds was another table with a lamp. Altogether there were four lamps in the room. Beneath all the ponderous dark furniture was a faded Oriental red rug with gold fringe. At one time it must have been a beautiful thing, but now it was old and worn. The walls were papered in cream with white flocking. The bedspreads were gold-colored and made of some heavy fabric like quilted satin. There were three paintings on the walls. Golly-lolly, they did steal your breath away! Grotesque demons chased naked people in underground caverns colored mostly red. Unearthly monsters devoured other pitiful souls. Even as their legs still kicked, they dangled from slobbering mouths filled with long, shiny, sharp teeths..."
(Flowers in the Attic, page51)
If you try to visualize it, you will notice how stressfull this place really is to the point of insanity. The old furniture and the fact that the children can't open the windows make it very unberable for them to live. The following is the sketch I used to draft a more detailed room.
There are two beds inside the room, and a table with four chairs for them to eat, a bathroom, and a closet with access to the attic. I think this is pretty much how the room would look like,
Cathy mentions all the existence of three paintings of hell in the room. Here is the outline of the closet that has access to the attic.
Cathy describes the door to the stairs that lead to the attic as very narrow, but I think the dimensions that she gives,one foot wide, is very unrealistic. I think the exaggeration is also an allusion to Alice in Wonderland.
The real room is even more stressful but because of software limitations, I couldn't add more dark furniture.
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