History Literature / FlowersInTheAttic

* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: The whole family has platinum-blond hair.

It is a gruesome story of lies, secrets, betrayal and triumph. ''Flowers in the Attic'' is the story of Cathy Dollanganger and her brothers and sister Christopher, Cory and Carrie. Following the death of their father, their mother takes them to live with their rich grandparents, who had disowned her and written her out of the will of her dying father. The Grandmother, a mean-spirited, overly-zealous religious fanatic, reveals the shocking truth about their mother's disinheritance, and that they must remain quiet and out of sight if they do not wish to be punished simply for being alive. As time goes by, the children suffer, locked up, abandoned and left to die by a selfish mother and a hateful grandmother.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy/ HostByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Chris and Cathy's incestuous love. The Grandmother wanted to prevent such a thing, but she actually pushed them together by locking them up for years, isolated from the rest of the world and other kids. One of the most primal instincts of human nature is to find a suitable mate for reproduction. Since Chris and Cathy were the only members of the opposite gender nearing sexual maturity, cooped up together for years, they naturally gravitated toward each other, siblings or not. It did not help that they had to play the roles of parents for their little brother and sister and that the Grandmother never seemed to leave them alone about it.]]

* [[MadwomanInTheAttic Devil's Pawn In The Attic]]

* [[LoserSonOfLoserDad Loser Kids Of Loser Parents]]: The grandmother thinks that the kids, especially Chris and Cathy, [[spoiler: are somehow incestuous by nature because they were inbred.]]

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: [[spoiler: Chris and Cathy's incestuous love. The Grandmother wanted to prevent such a thing, but she actually pushed them together by locking them up for years, isolated from the rest of the world and other kids. One of the most primal instincts of human nature is to find a suitable mate for reproduction. Since Chris and Cathy were the only members of the opposite gender nearing sexual maturity, cooped up together for years, they naturally gravitated toward each other, siblings or not. It did not help that they had to play the roles of parents for their little brother and sister and that the Grandmother never seemed to leave them alone about it.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: Cathy and Chris are constantly demanding this of each other, Cathy because Chris is so easily duped by their mother, who is keeping them locked up. And Chris because Cathy is extremely critical of their mother, who is the only person they can rely on to take care of them.

* GildedCage: The children's attic prison initially comes across as this when they are fed regularly and frequently given expensive presents. It becomes a nothing more than a cage, however, when their mother increasingly neglects.

* UnnamedParent: The grandparents are only known as The Grandmother and The Grandfather.

** FridgeLogic: Corrine receives 48 deep whip-cuts, going all the way down to her ankles. Yet, very soon after, she's described as playing sports, and wearing shorts and backless dresses. Not only does she show no signs of permanent injury, but no one outside the family ever notices the hideous, crippling scars that should have come from such a whipping?

* DarkOldHouse: Most of Foxworth Hall is beautiful, but the attic definitely falls under this trope.

* ParentalAbandonment: Their father is dead and their mother just flat out abandoned them.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Of the super-religious type. The Grandmother takes the incestuous relationship her daughter had committed, and used it as an excuse to starve, abuse, lie, blackmail, dehumanize children,and commit outright murder, among other things. Also, it is mentioned once that the grandfather feels like he is entitled to act however he wants and do whatever he wants because he funded a church.

* SexISEvilAndIAmHorny: Naturally, this is the result of that kind of repressed upbringing.

''Flowers in the Attic'' is a novel by Creator/VCAndrews first published in 1979 and adapted into a film in 1987.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The cookies, or more specifically, the arsenic-laced sugar topping. They were donuts in the book, cookies in the film]].

!!The film adaptation provides examples of:

* AdaptationDyeJob: Grandmother has grey hair in the books (and it turns out to be a wig) but is red-haired in the film.
* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Cathy calls her oldest brother Christopher throughout the whole film, which comes across as a little strange. It's not explained that since the father was Christopher as well, he was called Chris while Jr. was Christopher.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: The movie is set in the 1980s while the book was set in the 1950s. As a result Corrine going back to her rich family for money instead of finding a job herself is a little strange since there were less housewives and stay-at-home mothers in the 80s than there were in the 50s. Also Chris and Cathy are aged up to around fifteen and sixteen (they are fourteen and twelve respectively in the book) so one wonders why they didn't work either.
** Corrine does have rather expensive tastes, and few jobs would give her a high enough income. And she put it all on credit cards.
* DawsonCasting: This was one of the problems with the film adaptation. The actors playing the elder children are the size of full-grown adults but *act* as though they're relatively young children. This even [[PlotHole breaks the plot]] - the male lead is large enough to physically overpower the abusive grandmother, which would make escaping from the large, empty mansion trivial.
* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler: Corrine]] in the film. She does die in the third book but [[spoiler: in a fire]].
* DrinkingGame : the Forever Young Adult website has a pretty good one, mixed with a review.
* TheFilmOfTheBook
* IncestSubtext: The scene with the father giving Cathy her music box when she's alone in her bed, topped off with giving her a ring in a posture that looks very like a proposal. [[spoiler: Cathy and Christopher's relationship is relegated to subtext at best.]]
* TraumaticHaircut: Done more directly in the film, where Grandmother knocks Cathy down and cuts her hair off.
* UnnamedParent: The grandparents are only known as The Grandmother and The Grandfather. In the film, the father's name is never given.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The cookies, or more specifically, the arsenic-laced sugar topping]].

** Corrine does have rather expensive tastes, and few jobs would give her a high enough income.

* IncestSubtext: The scene with the father giving Cathy her music box when she's alone in her bed, topped off with giving her a ring in a posture that looks very like a proposal. [[spoiler: Cathy and Christopher's relationship is relegated to subtext at best.]]

* GildedCage: The children's attic prison initially comes they are fed regularly and frequently given expensive presents. It becomes a nothing more than a cage, however, when their mother increasingly neglects.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: The movie is set in the 1980s while the book was set in the 1950s. As a result Corrine going back to her rich family for money instead of finding a job herself is a little strange since there were less housewives and stay-at-home mothers in the 80s than there were in the 50s. Also Chris and Cathy are aged up to around fifteen and sixteen (they are fourteen and twelve respectively in the book) so one wonders why they didn't work either.

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