History Literature / FlowersInTheAttic

* AffectionateNickname: Christopher, Sr. refers to his children as his four little buttercups, in reference to their blond hair. Meanwhile the neighborhood refers to the entire Dollanganger clan as "the Dresden Dolls," since they resemble a set of perfect porcelain figurines.
** Chris also half-teasingly, half-affectionately, refers to his sister as "my lady Cath-er-ine," playing up their pretend roles as a princess in a tower and the white knight who will rescue her.

* AlliterativeFamily: The Dollangangers all have names that start with a C. Christopher, Corrine, Christopher Jr, Cathy, Cory and Carrie.

** Cathy, a self-described Melancholic pessimist who always suspects the worst of things, is frequently grumpy and moody, and is the most passionate and romantic-minded of the group.

* MeaningfulEcho:
** Early in the story, Cathy tells Chris that she'll respect him when pigs fly.
--->'''Chris:''' Speak respectfully when you speak to me.
--->'''Cathy:''' La-dee-da, and ho-ho-ho! The day I speak respectfully to you, Christopher, will be the day you ''earn'' my respect--and that will be the day you stand twelve feet high, and the moon is at noon, and a blizzard blows in a unicorn ridden by a gallant knight wearing pure white shining armor, with a green dragon's head perched on the point of his lance!
** Later--when things are getting flirty--it is repeated, this time in the context of them playing at ChivalricRomance, where they re-frame it as something of an EngagementChallenge, perhaps in the vein of NoManOfWomanBorn.
--->'''Cathy:''' Christopher, all you need is a white horse and a shield.
--->'''Chris:''' No, a unicorn, and a lance with a green dragon's head upon its point, and back I'll gallop in my shining white armor while the blizzard blows in the month of August and the sun is mid-sky, and when I dismount you'll be looking up at someone who stands twelve feet high, so speak respectfully when you speak to me, my lady Cath-er-ine.
--->'''Cathy:''' Yes, my lord. Go forth and slay yonder dragon--but take not overlong, for I could be undone by all that menaces me and mine in this stone-cold castle, where all the drawbridges are up, and the portcullises are down.

-->'''Chris:''' I'll bet you a hundred to one a woman wrote that junky romantic trash!
-->'''Cathy:''' T. M. Ellis could very well have been a man! Though I doubt any woman writer in the nineteenth century had much chance of being published, unless she used her initials, or a man's name And why is it all men think everything a woman writes is trivial or trashy--or just plain silly drivel? Don't men have romantic notions? Don't men dream of finding the perfect love? And it seems to me, that Raymond was far more mushy-minded than Lily!

-->'''Grandmother:''' Did you read a page from the Bible yesterday?
-->'''Chris:''' No, we don't read a page--we read chapters. If you consider reading the Bible a form of punishment, then forget it. We find it fascinating reading. It's bloodier and lustier than any movie we ever saw, and talks more about sin than any book we ever read.

-->'''Chris''': Now, that is what you call an hourglass figure. See the wasp waist, the ballooning hips, the swelling bosom? Inherit a shape like that, Cathy, and you will make a fortune.
-->'''Cathy''': ''[disgusted]'' Really, you don't know very much. That is not a woman's natural form. She's wearing a corset, cinched in at the waist so much her flesh is squeezed out at the top and the bottom. And that is exactly why women used to faint so much and then call for smelling salts.

* ConditionedToHorror: The poor twins. During one of the darkest points of their imprisonment, when starved to the point where Chris slits his wrist to provide them nourishment:

%%* DancesAndBalls: The Christmas party

* AllForNothing: Corrine's efforts to get back into her father's good graces are rendered mute with the revelation that she'll still be disinherited if it turns out that she had children from her first marriage. [[spoiler: And when he finally dies, an addendum to his will reaffirms this.]]

* TheCakeIsALie: [[spoiler:Corinne keeps promising her children that they will only have to stay in the attic until their grandfather finally dies, stringing them along with promises of how wonderful their lives will be after. When the children have been in the attic for nearly three years, Chris finds out that their grandfather has been dead for nearly a year, and Corinne never intended to let them out. Alive, that is--those powdered donuts she was giving them every day were laced with tiny doses of arsenic powder.]]

* TheCakeIsALie: [[spoiler:Corinne keeps promising her children that they will only have to stay in the attic until their grandfather finally dies, stringing them along with promises of how wonderful their lives will be after. When the children have been in the attic for nearly three years, Chris finds out that their grandfather has been dead for nearly a year, and Corinne never intended to let them out.]]

** Corrine is whipped to atone for her time spent "living in sin."

* TheCakeIsALie: [[spoiler:Corinne keeps promising her children that they will only have to stay in the attic for a short time and will be able to live freely when their grandfather finally dies. When the children have been in the attic for nearly three years, Chris finds out that their grandfather has been dead for nearly a year, and Corinne never intended to let them out.]]

* TheCakeIsALie: [[spoiler:When the children have been in the attic for nearly three years, Chris finds out that their grandfather has been dead for nearly a year, and their mother never intended to let them out.]]

* DiedOnTheirBirthday: At the beginning of the story, Chris Sr. killed in a car crash while driving to his 36th birthday party.

-->'''Chris:''' I'll have you and the twins to support, as well as myself--a ready-made family at age sixteen!

* AuthorAvatar: Andrews acknowledged that, while the book's storyline wasn't at all autobiographical, Cathy was very much based on her younger self, as a NaiveEverygirl with a love of reading.