Preview

Flowers in the Attic

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
306 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Flowers in the Attic
Tiffani Beasley
January 29, 2014
Abnormal Psychology

Flowers in the Attic
The movie Flowers in the Attic was one that depicts many different abnormal behaviors from all of the main characters. In the start of the movie the behavior was normal, and perfect. They were a loving family. However the death of the husband caused the family to break down. The mother began to act abnormal first after the father died. She was clearly experiencing depression and grief.
Later in the movie the grandmother is introduced. The grandmother seems to be suffering from some sort of mental and/or emotional disorder. She is very mean to the grandchildren. It seems as though she feels hurt by the birth of her grandchildren.
Initially I thought the father (grandfather) was in love with his daughter and that is why he was so livid about her marriage however after they revealed that his daughters husband is his brother his anger becomes a little understandable. However he still seems a little too emotionally attached to his daughter and is lacking emotional connection with his wife.
The children all start to develop abnormal behavior but that should be expected after being confined to an attic for years. The brother and sister begin to look at each other sexually because they literally don’t see anyone else and their both at the peak of puberty.
The most significant part of the story is the mother pretending as if her kids don’t exist. She went from being a house mother where her only concern was her kids to treating them horribly. The only explanation for that is psychosis; the mother clearly must have been going through it. However I’m not sure if it was caused by the death of her husband or if she never really loved her kids in the first place.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Discuss the importance of the union between choreography movement and design in AAADT, refer to flowers…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The grandmother's concerns about the trip foreshadow the events in the story. When the family decides to take a trip to Florida, the grandmother shows her worry about a Misfit heading their way. She believes the family should vacation to Tennessee, where she can visit some of her connections. She tells Bailey "the children have been to Florida before" (328). Either way, the grandmother was going to go on the trip, but she was not going alone. The grandmother brought along her cat without her son Bailey knowing about it. "She didn't intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself" (329). Her concerns about the cat later haunted her as the family decided to take a detour from their trip. The grandmother informed the family about an old plantation that she once visited when she was a young lady. With the displeasure of Bailey, they decided to visit the plantation. As the family made their way down a dirt road, the grandmother realized that they were in the wrong state. Remembering this, her feet jumped, and the cat suddenly jumped up and sprang onto Bailey's shoulder. "The children were thrown to the floor and their mother, clutching the baby, was thrown out the door onto the ground" (333). The cat had unexpectedly caused the accident.…

    • 863 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first facade that the Grandmother tries to portray of herself is when she expressed how important it was for her to dress up during the road trip so that “anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady”, with this statement one can see that the Grandmother is morally and spiritually disconnected. On the way to Florida Grandmother's character slowly unravels as she criticizes the “little packaninny” they saw standing outside with no pants on, stating that the “little niggers in the country don't have things like we do” suggesting that they were better off than most people which is contradictory to what most Christians believe(Bedford/St. Martin's 141). The Grandmother nags her son into taking them to visit an old plantation…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author expresses the theme by showing how the young teen feels the exact opposite with her grandma to the way she feels around her family. The girl connects with her grandma. The grandma represents great loss. She represents great loss because the grandma was the only person that gave her a sense of hope. The grandma must die so the girl can let go of her resentment and rebirth her new accepting self.…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Their family always was pleased and in check with the bills for the first few months when they moved to a new house. Two places where they stayed the longest was Phoenix and Blue Mountain. In both areas Dad found good paying job as miner or electrician in a mine and for the first few months all the family’s needs were full filled according to the writer. However, when dad lost his job, things around the house would go back into chaos and left mom no choice but to teach and this made life better with their needs met again. During these days everyone was happy and the children received presents regularly like a new bicycle. These events were when the most smiles and happiness in kids was shone off. Finally towards the end of the book everyone moved to New York City and from beginning to end in their stay everyone was joyful. However their dad did die and Maureen moved to California after stabbing her mother but order was still there. Jeanette went to an Ivy League college and after graduating she became a journalist which was what she always wanted to be since high school. The author made this time seem very cheerful except when they talked about her parents in the streets. Towards the end the thanksgiving dinner brought the family all together witch it brought forth a conclusion worth reading. The Glass Castle states on the last paragraph “We raised our glasses. I could almost hear Dad chuckling at Mom's comment in the way he always did when he was truly enjoying something.” This showed at the end of all the pain and suffering there was true peace for their family at…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    emotions about what he should say and do. He feels badly that the widow is…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bailey the grandmother’s son I would say is a “flat character. In the story his attitude never changes. He’s very quiet and gets pushed around by his mother. I would say that he gets taken advantage of because of this very reason. June Star, Bailey’s daughter and the granddaughter, isn’t very polite in the story. She’s very rude, mean spirited, and seems to be ill willed towards other people. Instead of her being sympathetic when the family got into an accident, she was disappointed that no one in the family was killed. John Wesley, Bailey’s dad and the grandson, is portrayed as a happy go lucky 8 year old boy. When the grandmother mentions going to see the house that she remembers, John seems very excited to be able to explore the secret panel. The Grandmother is characterized as rude and rather pushy with her views. Her son, Bailey, seems annoyed with the way that his mother acts. The reader’s perception of the Grandmother isn’t that great. She shows that she is a racist with her comment that she makes when she sees a little black kid. Her pushiness is what caused the family to get in the situation that they were in in the first place. The Grandmother shows no sympathy for other people. She is the worse out of the whole family.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman’s descent into madness as a result of postpartum psychosis. Postpartum psychosis is a condition that affects between one and two of every thousand live births. The condition of postpartum psychosis usually begins within two weeks of giving birth and sometimes within a matter of days. (“Depression”, 2009)…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Good Man Is Hard to Find

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The grandmother is the central character in the story. The grandmother is a manipulative, deceitful, and self-serving woman who lives in the past. She doesn't value her life as it is, but glorifies what it was like long ago. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone else's feelings stand in her way. She tries to justify her demands by convincing herself and her family that her way is the best way and really the only way. The grandmother is determined to change her family's vacation destination as she tries to manipulate her son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. She began trying to make Bailey, her son, feel guilty about the children's safety. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her conscience if she took the children in a direction where there was a convict on the loose." She is not successful with Bailey, so she uses the same antics on her daughter-in-law who doesn't even acknowledge her. The Grandmother leads the family down the dirt road by enticing the children with stories of a plantation she visited in her youth. The Grandmother lets her selfish thoughts lead her, and her family to doom. Once on the dirt road, the family has an accident, another situation that was spurred by Grandmother. After the family has the accident they encounter the Misfit. Eventually one after another is shot and killed by the Misfit. The…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The grandmother is the central character in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor. She is also a very well rounded and dynamic character. She shows various characteristics and reveals various remarks as they story progresses. Some of her qualities include selfish and a pushy person. She is also kind of manipulator in a way that she insists her family to change the plan. At the beginning of the story when we first realize her desire to visit her childhood house, she is being a very selfish person. Examining her conversation with her son Bailey, the grandmother is moreover a pushy person. She is convincing Bailey to change the trip plan according to her need only and which will benefit her only. She is trying to manipulate her family to do what she thinks is best. She is also a bit of criticizer at points in the story. Her characteristics remain same throughout the story that is even when her desire was ignored, she still kept praising it.…

    • 1670 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Flowers have all sorts of meanings. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, there are several different flowers that different people grow. These flowers have meanings that describe their character. Miss Maudie Atkinson has her azaleas. Mayella Ewell grows geraniums, and camellias represent Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Altar of the Family

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Third person narrative positions the reader to reject the father’s view on masculinity, whilst in an alliance with David, allowing the reader to sympathise.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this story, the Grandmother considers herself “the lady” of the family. The Grandmother considers herself having higher standards of other people and frequently passes judgment on others. She is a very talkative, nagging, narcissistic, and manipulative woman that frequently bosses the other family members around. For example, The Grandmother says, “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did” (O’Connor 436). She also…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In a family, the common role of a mother is to take care of the children and home. In "A Sorrowful Woman", the mother becomes stressed by her responsibilities…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane a 29 year old lady has reported cases of feeling sad all day, accompanied by daily crying spells in her day. She also reported cases of distressed and disturbed sleeping patterns where she would experience insomnia in some days. Her sleeping patterns included cases of difficulty in falling asleep where she would spend several hours trying to fall asleep. Other times Jane could not fall asleep at all, and if she did, it was only for very few hours. All this time was spent worrying and thinking not only about herself but also about her husband and family too. She would at times feel that she was not up to the task to her motherly duties to her three children. This feeling left her feeling that she was not a good mother. She also felt that she was a burden and a liability to her husband. Jane blamed these conflicting feelings to the unsatisfactory relationship that she shared with her mother.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics