The Role Of Greed In Flowers In The Attic By V. C. Andrews

The Third Deadliest Sin

Christopher, Cathy, Carrie and Cory Dollanganger suffer from the effects of greed at the hands of their mother, Corrine, in the novel Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. Compassion gives a person the ability to see through someone’s behavior to find the truth hiding behind it. Therefore when personal gain and self indulgence overshadows the needs of others, such greed plays a prominent role in the life of those impacted by that selfish desire. To accurately describe greed is to take a cup with a hole in the bottom and try to fill it with water, and not understand why the cup never fills up. Greed stems from desire; so then it is greed, which is never satisfied, disintegrates hope, and pollutes the soul.

Before

Everything is built on hope. But there comes a time where the hope that once burned bright now barely glows more than candlelight. Their mothers greed and entitlement effectively extinguished that flame of hope inside her children. Due to Corrine’s selfishness and reluctant compassion, Cathy believes it is “appropriate to color hope yellow, like the sun [the children] seldom saw”, which accentuates the false hope Cathy creates in their own world in the attic (Andrews 3). Hope; reduced to a mere color that when seen provides peace but never freedom. The only reason the children are patient and bare all those years hidden is an attic was because of the promises Corrine made. Their hope is that one day all this suffering will pay off, and they can have the life they always wanted. Promises were consistently made by Corrine that one day the children’s skin will once again feel the warm kiss of the sun, and that they would inherit a fortune beyond their belief. However over those long awaiting years their mother’s increasing lack of warmth slowly chips away at the children’s hearts, especially when Corrine was reluctant to join the children in their prison of a room. The story Cathy portrays from her eyes while watching her mother slowly disappear “told a tale of tragedy” (Gale 6). Day after day the mother takes a little bit of their hope from them which only discourages them more. Each visit from their

Her children would like to believe she was beautiful on the inside once. Corrine was innocent once but sin warped her heart along with her mind and turned her towards money. Over time, she lost the love of her children. Due to this Corrine tried to buy her children’s love back with expensive gifts. She mistook affection through gifts for love. When she found that she could no longer find refuge in the love her children provided her, she gave herself over completely to the comfort of wealth. The mother the children thought they knew was gone and they “don’t think she’s ever coming back” (Andrews). Corrine sought comfort in money and she believed that would provide happiness. She was desperate to find something to cling to in her life and money was the only stable thing she saw. Even from the beginning of the novel Corrine’s thoughts were filled with images of valued green paper instead of hearts as she believed that “it’s not love that makes the world go ‘round- it’s money” (Andrews 31). Money didn’t talk back or ask questions which is exactly what she wanted. It was something she could control. As time passed while Corrine’s children were hidden away “she becomes increasingly obsessed with securing her inheritance and...the children gradually lose their mother as well” (Daily Beast 10). Corrine is trying to make up for lost love with the money she is spending, but all the money is doing is polluting her soul and