"Flowers in the Attic"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the maltreatment of the children including beatings, intentional incarceration, neglect, incest and death in "Flowers in the Attic". The paper discusses the lessons a social worker can learn from this novel and apply to his or her practice. The paper posits that this book offers an important lesson on the dark side of human nature and how that nature can affect innocent children.

From the Paper:

"The author knows at least some of what she writes about in this novel. One author notes, "Her books, like Flowers in the Attic, as well as its sequels and prequels, concern hidden incest. Clearly, what is taken to be unnatural here is unnatural and repulsive from a moral standpoint" (Carroll, 1990, p. 40). When she was in high school, she fell down a flight of stairs and injured her back so severely that she will spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. She has felt isolation and unhappiness in her own life, and clearly brings those feelings to her novels. She may have even felt repulsive and unnatural, prompting her to write this book about her own experiences and isolation after her accident. This book was her first novel, and because of the violence, rape, and incest it contains, it has come under controversy ever since it was written in 1979 (Editors, 2005)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Andrews, V.C. (1979). Flowers in the attic. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Carroll, N. (1990). The philosophy of horror, Or, paradoxes of the heart. New York: Routledge.
• Christian-Smith, L. K. (1998). 9 Fiction, fantasy, and femininities: Popular texts and young women's literacies. In Power, knowledge, pedagogy: The meaning of democratic education in unsettling times, Carlson, D. & Apple, M. W. (Eds.) (pp. 226-239). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Editors. (2005). V.C. Andrews biography. Retrieved from the CompleteVCAndrews.com Web site: http://www.completevca.com/bio_bio.shtml 24 May 2007.

More papers on "Flowers in the Attic":

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• Analytical Essay # 42024 : "The Lifted Veil" and "The Madwoman in the Attic"
• Analytical Essay # 66082 : "Author V.C Andrews"

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