History Literature / SeedsOfYesterday

* SeductionAsOneUpmanship: Bart seduces his sister-in-law Melodie following his brother Jory's paralyzing accident, fed up after years of being TheUnfavorite and now seizing the opportunity to provide the sexual satisfaction that Jory can't. The cruel irony of this is that Jory himself has never done anything to hurt Bart or warrant this treatment

* TogetherInDeath: Aside from being unwilling to go on without Chris, Cathy's final words in a letter left to Bart indicates that she's ready to be reunited with everyone from her family who has already passed away--Cory, Carries, their father.

* SeductionAsOneUpmanship: Bart seduces his sister-in-law Melodie following his brother Jory's paralyzing accident, fed up after years of being The Unfavorite and now seizing the opportunity to provide the sexual satisfaction that Jory can't. The cruel irony of this is that Jory himself has never done anything to hurt Bart or warrant this treatment

-->'''Chris:''' I intend to tell you all the truth.
-->'''Jory:''' Is my spine broken?
-->'''Chris:''' Yes.
-->'''Jory:''' Are my legs paralyzed?
-->'''Chris:''' Yes.
-->'''Jory:''' Will I dance again?
-->'''Chris:''' No.

-->"[You're] glad I'm leaving--but before I go, I'm telling you off, too, old man!"

-->'''Jory:''' Bart's planning horse stables, so he can have fox hunts like Malcolm used to have. Perhaps one day we may even want to join in that kind of sport.
-->'''Melodie:''' Sport? I don't call a pack of hungry hounds chasing a cute little harmless fox a true sport--it's barbaric, that's what!

-->'''Joel:''' ''[coldly]'' Who warped you into what you are?
-->'''Cathy''' ''[sceaming in rage]'' Your parents. Your sister, Joel, locked us up and kept us there, living on promises year after year, while Chris and I were turning into adults with no one to love but each other. So place the blame on those who made Chris and I what we are. But before you say one more word, I'm having my say. I love Chris, and ''I am not ashamed.''

--->'''Cathy:''' The same twins. {{Doppelganger}}s.
--->'''Chris:''' ''[firmly]'' No, Cathy, not doppelgangers. These are not the same twins born again. Remember that. Carrie came first then; this time the boy was first. This is not an unlucky, doomed set of children. These two will have only the best.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Bart, after no one comes to his party, even though that was because someone sabotaged the invites.

* OedipusComplex:
** Cathy realizes that Bart will never find the "perfect" woman that he's looking for, because he's really looking for a replica of ''her''. Even worse, at the same time, Bart also projects all his resentments of Cathy onto other women, destroying his chances for love.
--->'''Toni''': He loves you, Cathy… loves you almost to the point of obsession. I don't even think he realizes how much he adores you. He thinks he hates you because of your relationship with your brother. [...] Because Bart feels he should hate you for that, he tries to. Still, something in you, in him, keeps him from ever really deciding which emotion will reign, love or hatred. [[LikeParentLikeSpouse He wants a woman like you]], only he doesn't know that. ''[pause]'' Cathy, I told him what I honestly thought, that he was looking for a woman like his mother. He went pale, almost dead white. He appeared totally shocked at the idea.
--->'''Cathy''': Toni, you have to be wrong. Bart doesn't want a woman like me, but the exact opposite.
--->'''Toni''': Cathy, I've studied psychology, and Bart does [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial protest too much about you]], so while I listened, I tried to keep an open mind.
** Reversed with Cathy and Jory after his accident and Melodie' s desertion. While there's no sexual attraction or desire, Cathy does acknowledge that she's replaced his wife as his caretaker and as a surrogate mother to his children. Melodie even lashes out at her about this.
--->'''Melodie:''' With a mother like you, Jory doesn't even need a wife.

*** Cindy and Jory. In a case of IncestuousCasting, Jory and Cindy dance ''Literature/SamsonAndDelilah'' together. It's a ''very'' sexualized role, and Cathy says they do great and really sell it. After his accident, Cindy tries to cheer Jory up by assuring him that--even paralyzed--she would still want him if he wasn't her brother.

** Cathy disapproves of Cindy's promiscuity, regardless of her own behavior in her teens and twenties. Deconstructed, in that it's ''because'' of her own unwise decisions that she wants her daughter to be more careful.

* SlutShaming:
** Basically everyone towards poor Cindy, to varying degrees. However, it's slowly {{Subverted|Trope}} or {{Deconstructed|Trope}} with Cathy. Cathy herself had lots of ill-advised sex in her youth, which--now that she's in her 50s--she looks back upon with different eyes. Cathy warns her daughter to take it slow with sex out of a desire to protect her, and not see Cindy make the same mistakes she herself did. But she doesn't articulate it very well at first, so it often comes across as surface-level slut shaming.
--->'''Cathy:''' Your father and I want only the best for you. We don't want you to be hurt. Let this experience with Lance teach you a lesson, and hold back until you are eighteen and able to reason with… more maturity. Hold out longer than that if you can. When you grab at sex too soon, it has a way of biting back and giving you exactly what you don't want. It did that to me, and I've heard you say a thousand times you want a stage and film career, and husbands and babies have to wait. Many a girl has been thwarted by a baby that started because of uncontrollable passion. Be careful before committing yourself to anyone. Don't fall in love too soon, for when you do you make yourself vulnerable to so many unforeseen events. Give romance a try without sex, Cindy, and save yourself all the pain of giving too much too soon.
** Bart to Toni. After several months of bliss and serious discussion of marriage, suddenly he's calling her dress trashy and blasting her for dancing with another man, when only moments earlier, he was ''complimenting'' how pretty she looked and had given her permission to dance with someone else. He’s deliberately ruining things and everyone knows it.

** Basically everyone towards poor Cindy, to varying degrees. The irony is, for all her promiscuity, she's neither related to, cheating on, or cheating with, any of the boys she sleeps with--unlike those condemning her.
*** Subverted between Cathy and Cindy. Cathy doesn't articulate it very well so it often ''comes across'' as slut shaming--but that isn't really it. With time it becomes clear that Cathy warns her daughter to take it slow with sex out of a desire to protect her, and not see Cindy make the same mistakes she herself did when she was young.
---->'''Cathy:''' Your father and I want only the best for you. We don't want you to be hurt. Let this experience with Lance teach you a lesson, and hold back until you are eighteen and able to reason with… more maturity. Hold out longer than that if you can. When you grab at sex too soon, it has a way of biting back and giving you exactly what you don't want. It did that to me, and I've heard you say a thousand times you want a stage and film career, and husbands and babies have to wait. Many a girl has been thwarted by a baby that started because of uncontrollable passion. Be careful before committing yourself to anyone. Don't fall in love too soon, for when you do you make yourself vulnerable to so many unforeseen events. Give romance a try without sex, Cindy, and save yourself all the pain of giving too much too soon.

* AbsoluteCleavage[=/=]LadyInRed: Cindy combines both tropes in the dress she wears to Bart's 25th birthday.
-->'''Cathy:''' Cindy, go back to your room and put on that blue dress you promised to wear. You're sixteen, not thirty.
-->'''Cindy:''' Oh, Momma, don't be so stodgy. Times have changed. Nudity is in, Momma, IN. And compared to some I could have chosen, this dress is modest, absolutely prudish.

* PermaStubble:

* NotSoDifferent: Joel at one point tells Cathy that there are times she reminds him of his mother, the dreaded "Grandmother" of the first book. Cathy is floored at the idea that she "could be anything like that hard old woman."

* BigFancyHouse: Foxworth Hall is restored to its original glory. Not only that, but Bart's made sure it also has the latest in technological luxuries.

* EmpathicEnvironment: Inverted. Cathy notes how beautiful the weather is the day of Chris' funeral.

Bart, now a successful businessman in his own right, stands posed to inherit the vast Foxworth fortune on his 25th birthday. His first act is to [[NeverRecycleABuilding rebuild Foxworth Hall in all its glory]], and Cathy and Chris (now in their mid-fifties), their [[HappilyAdopted teenage daughter Cindy]], Cathy's son Jory, and Jory's beautiful bride [[ChildhoodSweetheart Melodie]], arrive for an extended visit to the newly restored mansion. The house brings back painful memories for Cathy and Chris, who vow only to stay until Bart's birthday, after which they will [[{{Retirony}} spend the rest of their lives in Hawaii]], basking in the sun that was once denied to them.

Cathy and Chris, now in their mid-fifties, move into the newly rebuilt Foxworth Hall with their adult sons Jory and Bart and their teenage daughter Cindy. The house brings back painful memories for Cathy and Chris, who vow only to stay until Bart's birthday, after which they will [[{{Retirony}} spend the rest of their lives in Hawaii]]. But after a tragic accident, they find themselves staying on and on as jealousy and greed threaten to tear the family apart. It seems that Foxworth Hall is bent on snaring them in its sinister web until they are again trapped in its walls, just as they were as children, until Cathy realizes that the only way to end the cycle is [[ThePowerOfLove by healing her children's hearts and bringing love and light into Foxworth Hall again]].

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Melodie begins an affair with Bart after Jory's accident.
** Rumors abound about Bart cavorting with other married women, specifically, the wives of the men who supposedly snubbed him by not attending his Christmas party.

* BlatantLies: Bart stops ogling Cindy long enough to tell her "YoureNotMyType." Sure, Bart, ''sure''. Bart's type is "women like his mother" and multiple people, from Chris to Cathy to Bart himself, comment that Cindy is quite a bit like Cathy in her youth.

* CoversAlwaysLie: If you saw the cover, you'd probably think that the blonde woman in the 'keyhole' image (presumably Melodie) was the main character. Cathy, the actual narrator of the book, appears in the stepback as the old woman.

--> "A day for fishing, for swimming, for playing tennis and having fun, and they put my Christopher in the ground."
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Cindy takes ''one look'' at Toni and Jory and knows. The implication is more that Cindy is astute than that Jory and Toni are obvious.

** Cathy and Chris--who have engaged in (HappilyMarried and monogamous) BrotherSisterIncest for ''years''--disapprove of Bart and Melodie, for having an affair after Jory's accident.

** Cathy disapproves of Cindy's promiscuity, regardless of--or perhaps because of--her own behavior in her teens and twenties.

* IAmWhatIAm: Cathy has been HappilyMarried to Chris for two decades at this point, but she still has some shame around it. Joel's condemnation, though, pushes her through that to declare that she is ''not'' ashamed.

*** Cindy and Jory. In an instance of IncestuousCasting, Jory and Cindy dance ''Literature/SamsonAndDelilah'' together. It's a ''very'' sexualized role and Cathy says they do great and really sell it. After his accident, Cindy tries to cheer Jory up by assuring him that--even paralyzed--she would still want him if he wasn't her brother.

** As Cindy comes into her sexuality, her mother tries to encourage her to take her time--and at the very least, to not have sex under their roof. It comes from a place of love and caring (Cathy wants her daughter to be more careful and measured with her sexuality than she was at that age) but Cathy doesn't articulate this particularly well.

** Reversed with Cathy and Jory after his accident and Melodie' s desertion. While there's no sexual attraction or desire, Cathy does acknowledge that she's replaced his wife as his caretaker and as a surrogate mother to his children. Melodie even lashes out at her about this, "With a mother like you, Jory doesn't even need a wife."

* OnePersonBirthdayParty: No one comes to Bart's Christmas party. JustifiedTrope, because the invitations were not sent and the RSVPs were falsified.

-->'''Cindy''': I met Melodie in New York. She cried a lot when I told her how pretty the twins are… but the day after your divorce went through, she married another dancer. Jory, he looks a lot like you, only not nearly as handsome, and he doesn't dance as well, either.

*** Subverted between Cathy and Cindy. While Cathy doesn't articulate it very well, and it often ''comes across'' as this, that isn't really it. With time it becomes clear that Cathy warns her daughter to take it slow with sex out of a desire to protect her, and not see Cindy make the same mistakes she herself did.
--->'''Cathy:''' Your father and I want only the best for you. We don't want you to be hurt. Let this experience with Lance teach you a lesson, and hold back until you are eighteen and able to reason with… more maturity. Hold out longer than that if you can. When you grab at sex too soon, it has a way of biting back and giving you exactly what you don't want. It did that to me, and I've heard you say a thousand times you want a stage and film career, and husbands and babies have to wait. Many a girl has been thwarted by a baby that started because of uncontrollable passion. Be careful before committing yourself to anyone. Don't fall in love too soon, for when you do you make yourself vulnerable to so many unforeseen events. Give romance a try without sex, Cindy, and save yourself all the pain of giving too much too soon.

* TheUnfavorite: Bart has still never escaped this, constantly being upstaged by his brother and adopted sister.
** Downplayed, it is confirmed in both this book and the previous that his parents do truly love him and want the best for him, but because he has a closer feel to Cathy's father (Malcolm) that he is the more dangerous one, whereas Jory is closer similarly to Chris. Cathy does acknowledge that she did favor Jory and Cindy more, but I think it was more unintentional on her part, because his dark personality and the fact that he was clumsy and not confident as a child, though she did say that she felt pity for him and expressed her sorrow whenever he would try to deliberately hurt himself for failing, but she always did love him just as much as she did Jory and later Cindy (Cathy does point out in the epilogue that she loves all her three children and equally). Bart was just the one less easier to be with, and as Cathy pointed out, it is not as if his family did not want to reject him, they just did not know how to deal with him.

* WhenIWasYourAge: In conversations with both Bart and Cindy, Cathy says she's sad they're experiencing modern hook-up culture, as opposed to how it was when she was young. In her day they had torrid affairs, but at least they meant something by it.

Before all the roses die? I stared at her, then shook my head, thinking I was reading too much into ordinary words. The roses would live until a heavy freeze came, and winter was months away.''

*** Cindy and Jory. In an instance of IncestuousCasting, Jory and Cindy dance ''Literature/SamsonAndDelilah'' together. It's a ''very'' sexualized role and Cathy says they do great and really sell it. After his accident, Cindy tries to cheer Jory up by assuring him than even paralyzed, she would still want him if he wasn't her brother.

* OnePersonBirthdayParty: No one comes to Bart's Christmas party.
** Justified though, because even though people said that they were going to attend, Joel actually did not send out the invitations out of spite.

* SettleForSibling: Bart also realizes this about his relationship with Melodie. Later, he accuses Toni of this when she reveals that she and Jory are engaged, but she sets him straight and tells him that if anything, she's trading ''up''.

* SiblingRivalry: Bart with both his siblings

*** Subverted between Cathy and Cindy. While Cathy doesn't articulate it very well, and it often ''comes across'' as this, that isn't really it. Cathy warns her daughter to take it slow with sex out of a desire to protect her, and not see her make the same mistakes she did.

* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: A heartbreaking scene when Cathy is in the hospital with her son Jory, desperately trying to convince her son to find the will to live.

** Downplayed, it is confirmed in both this book and the previous that his parents do truly love him and want the best for him, but because he has a closer feel to Cathy's father (Malcolm) that he is the more dangerous one, whereas Jory is closer similarly to Chris. Cathy does acknowledge that she did favor Jory and Cindy more, but I think it was more unintentional on her part, because his dark personality and the fact that he was clumsy and unconfident as a child, though she did say that she felt pity for him and expressed her sorrow whenever he would try to deliberately hurt himself for failing, but she always did love him just as much as she did Jory and later Cindy (Cathy does point out in the epilogue that she loves all her three children and equally). Bart was just the one less easier to be with, and as Cathy pointed out, it is not as if his family did not want to reject him, they just did not know how to deal with him.

* YoureNotMyFather: Bart pulls this frequently and aggressively with his Chris. Bart's biological father] died before he was born, and Chris has been his stepfather since he was a toddler. He is the man who raised him, and the only father Bart can remember. Chris, for his part, unquestionably considers Bart his son, loves him, and holds out hope their relationship will improve someday.