18 minute read
Katie Frederick, “The Use of Food in Flowers in the Attic
The Use of Food in Flowers in the Attic By Katie Frederick
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews follows the Dollanganger children's life after the loss of their father. After his death, their mother moves them back into her childhood home, where they are locked up in a room with access to the attic. This is done because she fears that her dying father will not give her any inheritance, leaving her and the children without anything. The first half of the book covers the children's first year there, and the second half covers a few years of their lives in that space. After Cory, one of the twins, begins to get sick, Chris and Cathy, the oldest, find a way out of the room to steal money to get themselves and the twins out. This all comes to a head after Cory gets very sick and dies, and their mother and new husband move out, leaving nothing. But when Chris found nothing when he went to steal, he learned several things, that their grandfather had been dead for a year, that their grandmother had been telling the staff that they were trying to kill mice in the attic. This leads Chris to figure out the powdered sugar donuts they had been getting were laced with arsenic and that Cory had died of arsenic poisoning. They test the donuts on a mouse that they had been keeping as a pet, and it dies shortly after eating the donut. They collect the remaining donuts and mouse as evidence. After Cathy, Chris, and Carrie leave and make it to safety, Chris tells Cathy the rest of what he knows and makes her decide what to do. Chris tells her that their mother had been the one poisoning them because the will said she could have no children and should they turn the evidence in that she and Carrie will probably be sent to an orphanage. The book ends with them throwing away the evidence and getting ready to start their new life.
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Food is an essential aspect of Flowers in the Attic. The book can be broken into three different parts when talking about food. The first section is food before they go to live at the Foxworth manor. The second is when they first come to the manor until the incident between the grandmother and Cathy. The section is what comes after the incident. At the beginning of this section, the donuts are introduced as their treat for the day. In Flowers in the Attic, food is being used to show the children's lack of control over their lives, their dependence on outside factors such as the grandmother and mother, and its use as a tool of control.
Food is first introduced in the book when Corrine, the mother, and the children are waiting for the father to get home from work; “the wonderful meal Momma had spent so much time preparing was drying out from being too long in the warming oven (Andrews, 15).” Shortly after this, the reader finds out that the father had been killed driving home from work. There is an immediate from all of horror and disbelief. After this, the next
few mentions of food come with people bringing over food to help the family as they bury the father, and Corrine begins to plan what to do. The next two interactions with food helped set up Corrine as not fully there or a competent mother without their father, Christopher. In both instances, Cathy is asking Corrine to make them food as the twins are hungry, and Cathy is not really old enough to prepare dinner. In the first instance, Cathy asks her mother to make them food because the twins are hungry. Corrine gets irritated at Cathy and tells her that she is busy and that Cathy is old enough to warm up dinner for herself and the twins, as they had premade dinners from some of the neighbors. In the second instance, Corrine ignores their need for food and begins to talk to them about how she has been talking to their grandmother and that they would be going to stay with them. The children are told then to go off and pack very little and that the twins will get dinner on their way. All three of these instances show the children’s lack of control over their lives; as they were not able to control what happened to their father, their mother’s behavior after his death and lack of care for their needs, and the lack that they were going to have to leave their lives behind to go live at their grandparents’ manor. These instances also show their reliance on their mother to take care of them, and when she does not do it, they struggle to try to take care of themselves.
On their first day in the attic, the grandmother brings them food and explains the rules of living in the manor to them. She explains that they will be brought food once a day and that they will have to make that food last for all three meals. She also explains that they will never get candy as a treat because they cannot get cavities. She also then gives them rules about food. Such as saying grace before each meal, brushing their teeth after each meal, and that they will eat all the food that is brought up to them. There are several descriptions of what they get to eat, with cereal and toast being common for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and a variety for dinners. There are automatically problems with the twins not liking the food that is brought to them and the fact that they have to store the food all day, meaning it’ll be soggy and cold. Throughout this section, it is a challenge to get the twins to eat the food that they are given because the twins are so disgusted by the food. However, they are dependent on this food for survival because they can not leave to other food. This takes control of their ability to get nutrients out of their hands and makes them dependent on the grandmother. They have to trust that she will continue to feed them and not leave them up there to starve. The children did have some good times within this section with food, though unlike the prior one. One of their happier moments was when they got Thanksgiving food that Corrine brought up to them. However, even the twins were fussy about the food, “we-ee don’t like cold food (Andrews, 166)!” A few times, their mother brings them specifically for Christmas. At this point, there is ambiguity between Cathy and Corrine because of the lack of care that Corrine is displaying towards the children. Bringing them treats is one of the ways that Corrine tries to compensate for not coming to see the children often. This works in these instances because she exclaims big plans to them about leaving and being ready to be back with the children. While not directly showing them
how reliant they are on her in these cases, she does provide them with food that they would have no access to without her. By bringing them treats, she has a way to control their feelings towards her. Because while they may be irritated at her by bringing them food, they do not have access to will make them grateful and forget about their irritation.
The beginning of the third section is where the children begin to have many issues with food. After the grandmother catches Chris and Cathy not fully clothed in the same room, she decides to punish them. She threatens to take away their food unless Cathy cuts her hair off. After Cathy does not do it, the grandmother pours tar into her hair. After this, she stops bringing them food. After a week, Cathy and Chris get desperate enough to eat mice to have the strength to get themselves and the twins out through the attic and leave. However, Chris returns with the picnic basket that they get their food in. The children do not have to eat the mice and slowly consume the food they usually get. Included in this were four powdered sugar donuts. After this, things returned to ordinary no matter what they were doing, which the children found weird but did not complain about. Corrine comes to visit shortly after the children are starved. She again manipulates them with gifts, including sweets that Cathy adores. This is a direct attempt to control Cathy's emotions towards her like she can do with Chris. At this point, she has almost no care for the twins. This is clearly seen when Cory gets very ill. Chris and Cathy believe it is just food poisoning until it continues to get worse. They beg their mother to take Cory to the doctor, and she eventually relents. She refuses to let Cathy go with them and returns, telling them Cory has died and been buried in a grave under another name. Before this, Chris and Cathy had already been planning to escape with the twins and had been stealing from Corrine's room. Shortly after Cory's death, she and her husband leave-taking everything of value, and Chris discovers the truth about what had been happening. Chris figures out the powdered sugar donuts they had been getting were laced with arsenic and that Cory had died of arsenic poisoning. And that was why he and Cory had been sick multiple times; and why Cathy and Carrie both also were beginning to get sick. They decide then they must leave immediately. They ultimately decide not to turn in the evidence they have because they do not want to get separated. In this section, food was used to show the children's lack of control over their lives, their dependence on outside factors, and its use as a tool of control. They finally did control their lives back, but that was after losing their brother and almost dying themselves. Due to the people they were depending on to keep them alive. Food showing their dependence on outside factors and its use to control them was clearly demonstrated in the grandmother's starving them to try to get Cathy to cut her hair.
Food in literature often has a deeper meaning than what is presented on the surface level. Food represented multiple things in this book and had a much deeper meaning in the children's life. The use of food as a method of control over the children was one of the book's center points. It showed their dependence on outside factors and how it showed how little control the children had; played into how it was used to control them.
Bon Appétit
Food plays a very important part in multiple aspects of my life. It is used as a form of celebration, comfort, and fun. I personally love to cook and enjoy doing it whenever I can. Some of my most important memories involve food. When celebrating, my family does not typically cook. Instead, we eat a meal at a restaurant. However, for comfort, we always cook at home, and typically it is some sort of family recipe.
One of the ways that food has been used as celebration in my family is through its use for birthdays. In my family, when my sister and I were younger, we used to get a donut for our birthdays and get to pick a birthday dinner. As we have grown up, we have stopped getting donuts but have continued to get a birthday dinner. Even after my parents divorced, we continued this tradition. We get two birthday dinners, one with my mom and one with my dad. I turned eighteen this June, which I did not get to do much during the middle of a pandemic. I did get my birthday dinner, though, which I am very grateful for because it gave me some normalcy that I had not had in a while. Another tradition we have added as my sister and I have gotten older is getting bundt cakes from a store in south Denton. My sister and I get to choose what kind we want to get, and then my parents typically get it with just the birthday decorations that they have. This year though, I get a princess one. My mom and sister’s rationale was it was my last time being a child, and I should enjoy it with some silliness.
Another way food has been used as a celebration was for after games. My family and friends typically go out for a meal after games. It is a time to socialize after the stress of the games. It has always been really nice to have these meals because no matter what, I had a good time with the people I cared most about. A lot of times, these meals have been held at Chili’s or Miguelito’s, a local Mexican restaurant. These places could seat a large number of people and always have a friendly atmosphere. It was really hard this year not getting to make those memories during water polo season. I lost a lot of time t that I would have been able to spend with my team, which was really hard for me.
The last way my family uses food for celebration is for events like graduation. I am the oldest child, so this was the first graduation for my parents. It was really hard on all of us because we could not go celebrate as a family afterward. Instead, while I was graduating, my family sat in my dad’s car and ate snacks. My mom was horrified that my dad and sister were eating cookies and beef jerky in the middle of my graduation. Afterward, I did not get to eat with them because of the chaos that was graduation. Instead, much like birthdays, I got separate meals with them to celebrate. It was not what I envisioned at all for my dinner after graduation, but I am grateful for what I got.
One of the ways we use food as a comfort is to recreate meals from the midwest. My family is originally from Nebraska, and
not all the restaurants or food from up there are available in Texas. One of the restaurants that we always try to eat at is Runza; it is a fast-food restaurant that has the best food and has almost no restaurants outside Nebraska. Their runza sandwiches are not available anywhere else; they do sell frozen ones, but it is nowhere near the same as getting a fresh one. While we were up there, we were talking to my grandmother about it; she came up with a recipe for homemade ones. They were great, not quite the same, but they were really great. We make homemade ones quite frequently and love them. One of the reasons I was so excited when I was planning on going to the University of Nebraska was that I would actually get to eat the food that I miss so much.
Another way we use food as comfort is at funerals. I have had to attend two funerals and my life. Both were in the midwest, and they were both about as midwest as you can get. One of my clearest memories I have is about some of the food there. In the midwest, green jello with tuna fish is an old and traditional thing to bring to funerals. I have no idea who thought this was a good idea or who thought it should be brought to funerals, but it was there both times. I personally have never ate it, but I remember all the older people eating it while, the younger generations stayed as far away from it as possible. I also remember that nothing was store-bought at these events. It was all strictly homemade.
I find it interesting that my family only cooks for comfort and not for celebration. I know with most families, they tend to either stick to all homemade or all restaurant food. I appreciate that my family does cook for comfort, though. It makes the feelings behind it feel more real; there is an artificialness to only ever eating out at restaurants for comfort. I kind of like that I get a mix of both, though, and that celebrations get to be held in a public area.
I personally enjoy cooking and love to try new recipes. Over quarantine, I learned how to bake banana bread, and it was a mess. The first time I tried to make it was a mess. I decided to try this instant pot banana bread recipe. It looked like soup after we cooked it, and it left a mess in the pan. My mother and I could not figure out what had gone wrong. Later I realized that I had only floured that sides of the pan. I did not actually mix in the flour needed into the batter… The next time I made it turned out better. This time I did not use the instant pot, and instead, I decided actually to bake it in the oven. This time turned out better, but it still was kind of undercooked in the middle. I was determined to get it right, so I decided to bake another one. This one came out perfectly. I was so excited I texted my friends to ask them who wanted banana bread because I could make a couple more. Well, the next one I made completely fell apart and was so undercooked that I could not believe that it had been in the oven for over an hour. I had to text my friend and tell him that I could not bring him banana bread because it had fallen apart when I had taken it out of the pan.
The next time I cooked for people was for my dad and sister. I decided I wanted to try to make ratatouille. When I went to the store, I knew that it probably would not be good because when
I got the eggplant, I knew that it would not cut like I wanted it to. When I was making it, it looked okay despite the odd sizing of the different vegetables next to each other. It actually turned out really good, while I have not been able to make it since I am looking forward to making it in the future.
The next time I cooked was quiche for my mom while I was home from college. I was not expecting much from this when I made it. I just looked up a recipe and decided to try it. When I was making it, I was just kept thinking that it was going to be inedible. Even when putting, I spilled some and took it as a sign that I should not be making it. When it came out of the oven, though, I was shocked. While the crust did not look that good, the actual quiche looked good. I actually did not get to try it because I made it right before I went back to college. But I was told it was really good and got to try it the next time I made it when I was at home.
The most recent time I have cooked was for Thanksgiving. I decided to make Mississippi mud pie. I really did not think about how much work it was going to take. The first thing I had to do was make the cake. I created a mess while doing so and kept putting extra minutes on the timer because it did not look done, but the recipe said it would not look completely done. The true mess came when I was making the pudding. When making it, I messed up multiple times and did not get the chemical reaction needed to really make it pudding. When we took it out of the fridge to see its consistency the next day, it still was still liquid. Only one tiny corner had gotten to the consistency that was needed. I had to remake it completely and was just over it at that point. When it came to making the actual whip cream, I just powered through it because I wanted the project to be over so badly. But when all put together, it actually did taste really good, it was not my favorite thing I have made, but I may make it again.
Cooking brings me great joy because it gives me new experiences while not having to go anywhere. I enjoy that it can be challenging if you want to make it be or easy if that is what you decide. I also love being able to cook for those that I care about. I love knowing that they are enjoying what I am making and that I can do something good for them. Food is a very important aspect of my life, and I plan to continue to make it an important aspect.
Winona's Meatball Recipe
Ingredient Ground Beef Oats Chopped Onion Eggs Ketchup Mustard Brown Sugar Worcester Sauce
Amount 3 lbs. 1 Cup 1 2 2 Cups 2 Tbsp. 1/3 Cup 2 Tbsp.
Instructions
Combine the hamburger, oats, onion, eggs, and milk
Shape into meatballs
Place in a 9x13 pan
Pour the mixture over the meatballs
Bake at 350°F for 1 hour
