-WARNING: If you have not read "The Wildflowers: Cat" by V.C. Andrews, please be aware that the following article WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS to the plot. Thank you for your understanding and have a nice day!-
Cat (as seen on the cover of "her" book)
Before I start, let it be known that the accredited author, V.C., did not actually write this or any books published following her death several years before the publish date (2000~2001). Instead, many of the books with her name on it in recent years have been ghostwritten by various authors who were asked to mimic her style. Much respect to those people.
Cathy Carson is a seventeen-year-old young lady of modern America (the late 1990's). It is implied that she lives in a quiet suburb somewhere in California. She grew up living with both her mother and father, although one of her earliest observations was that they did not seem to be nearly as affectionate as most other couples with or without children were. From an early age as well, her mother ruled the household with an iron fist. Their home was near-spotless and kept in the utmost order; Cathy remarks that she would grow accustomed to the various intoxicating smells of disinfectants and cleaning agents her mother used day in and out. It also would seem fairly dark within their house most of the time, because her mother insisted on keeping the curtains drawn so that no outsider could snoop on them. You could also describe her mother as a drill-sergeant, as if Cathy did not keep with the schedule, her mother would be quick to come in and march her along directly. Her father seemed more like a typical parent, a bit laid-back , but more soft in speaking to his daughter. He never would defy his wife to her face, but it was common for him to sneak snarky replies behind her piercing glare.
Some of Cathy's mother's other actions were a bit less than humane. She would block out anything she considered dirty from her daughter's sight. If any clothing was the least bit form-fitting or showed any skin beyond what would be expected to seen on a soldier in uniform (another analogy Cathy used in her narration), then it was discarded. If Cathy were to leave any of her underclothes or worn clothes outside her room, even once by simple accident, it was (literally) cut up and laid on her bed, as an example from her mother. If any magazines, books or textbooks showed anything suggestive, then her mother would also physically remove them from the source via scissors. If a program showed couples displaying love beyond hugging and holding hands or if she did not approve of the clothes worn, then her mother also forbade anyone in their house from watching it. When Cathy's body begins to develop early (around age 9), her mother insists she wear a specific type of sports bra which Cat describes more as being a straight-jacket with how much it would squish her chest down. When Cathy began to have a period, her mother refused to buy her any tampons nor ever explained about becoming a woman. Her exact reaction was to call her daughter's coming of age as an affront to the Lord and believed that since her body was menstruating and becoming able to make children that her daughter was also a whore, which that was precisely what she told Cathy. If you wonder to yourself, "why doesn't Cathy or her dad do anything about their monster of a mom/wife?" the fact is that they can't bring themselves to defy her. If her father were to attempt to intervene, the mother would simply remove him from the premises (she had full custody of Cathy anyway). Cathy could not bring herself to challenge her mother because she believed that part of everything her mother did was right, as she would often be told her mother did it for her benefit. Her mother never let Cathy's grandparents visit for very long and Cathy noted how much her mother seemed to dislike socializing when she could instead be cleaning or otherwise doing something productive. Her mother almost seemed robotic in how efficient she was in her shopping and errands, though it is shown that she doesn't care for doctors and modern medicine, instead relying on her own, trusted herbal remedy. Her mother's strength was so pronounced that she once found herself pregnant, sought no medical attention and never once stopped her strenuous housework/maintenance and miscarried, letting the fetus drop into the toilet and flushing it away while attending herself as if nothing at all happened. One could not begin to imagine just why her mother was so cold and metallic...
As mentioned above, it was her father who seemed to fill the more expected role of warm, loving parent to Cathy. While he was a tall man with rather long fingers ("spider fingers", Cat says), he wasn't much of an alpha-male and instead just sort of went along with whatever Cathy's mother demanded, more or less. He had a smoking habit, which Cathy's mother detested and made verbal as much as she could. One could see him sitting in a recliner with a cigar in his mouth and the newspaper in his hands and she would be furiously sweeping through the kitchen, so fast as if she were trying to sweep the secondhand smoke right back over to where it came. Eventually he gave up smoking in the house so as to have one less argument with le' Commandant. It's strongly implied that they probably never slept together much; Cathy points out that they did in fact sleep in separate beds. Her mother despises weakness and sex to her is the ultimate showing of weakness, to give herself up to anyone was not something she'd readily do and that was exactly how she was rearing Cathy. Her daughter was not allowed to attend just any public school, as only a specific, all girl's parochial would be deemed even slightly suitable for Cathy's education. Her father protested but as usual, the mother kept her decision firm and that was the end of that. It would be her father that would try to give his daughter a more normal life, buying her more feminine clothing and nightwear (all she had to wear otherwise was a very old-fashioned nightgown, itchy and very warm, as it was full cotton). He also would give his daughter praise for doing things like washing herself well and only from him would she receive kisses and showings of affection.
Cathy might have bought entirely into everything and exactly as her mother ordered if not for her father. When she was upset, it would be him to rationalize and comfort her. It also became clear that he really didn't like her mother that much, as he would mock her freely when alone with his daughter. In her early teenage years, Cathy is invited for the first time to a schoolmate's house for what her mother is told to be a dinner party. Since the girl is attending Cathy's parochial school and she knows her parents, her mother allows her daughter to attend, believing it would be a quiet and mannerly gathering, like what one might expect at a formal adult wine-tasting. Cathy does go but is ridiculed and peer-pressured into becoming drunk on alcohol and the girls let the boys that they invited, without Cathy or anyone's parent's knowing, grope her, which she does not enjoy at all. The result is Cathy being even more confined to their house by her mother's obvious reaction to it all and continuing distrust for people, and her father goes to comfort his daughter after the ordeal. There, he explains in a very calm tone, though lecturing like a teacher, to his daughter about good touch and bad touch. He even goes as far as to demonstrate it with her as well. Cathy is very confused by this, but since she would fall over in terror before telling her mother she might be doing something dirty with her father, she can't bring herself to do anything but just close her eyes and pretend it was all a dream. It was just easier that way, a dream to escape the prison she was kept in by both her parents: her mother, who intimidated her with decorum and harsh discipline and her father who was intimidating her physically under the guise of providing "lessons" and "love"...
There is even more to her story beyond what I've just reiterated to you all, so feel free to check out both this book as well as the sequel and finale to the Wildflowers series, "Into the Garden", if you've ever a chance.
To really explain why Cat is such a cool and important character to me, I must tell you a bit more about myself. When I first stumbled upon this series (in the Book section of a Wal-Mart near Hershey, PA), I was 11 years old and had been attending a private, boarding school for the prior 6 years. I sat down and began to read part of it in the store immediately before buying it, as I was looking for something to read that wasn't too long but seemed interesting. Cat's simple looks and the short summary/intro on the rear cover really caught my attention, then, reading a few pages made me really want to buy it and read the rest (the fact it wasn't overly expensive then, too, was a help). I had never read anything from the author before, but I was really into realistic fiction from having been a fan of the Babysitter's Club books I read since in 5th grade. Then this story... it was so shockingly honest, dark and compelling. I feel I can also attribute to having read this to helping me become much more honest with people, to some extent, as I hadn't completely broken my lying streak at that time. The fact that I, too, had been sent to a private school and was feeling distant from my own mother also made this character relatable to me. I am not happy to also admit, that part of the strictness of Cathy's mom has become apparent in my grandfather, who I've lived with since forever when I wasn't at that school or with my mom for a short time in 8th grade. I get berated to no degree to pull my looks to his own standards and cannot leave the house for appointments and such if he is not happy with my appearance (the same applies to Cathy and her mother in the book). It pains me that I cannot confide in him with anything, because he has expressed his own distaste over homosexuality and even other races (he can be very bigoted), yet I want to because I do trust in him to a basic degree. I just hate when he comes and starts talking to me, and then if I even disagree with anything he will raise his voice in anger and tell me I know nothing and how no one would ever want to associate with me... yet people still do and they seem to like me, so WTH? So I'm bisexual and prefer men most of the time, that does not mean I want to just have sex and stuff all the time! If I start talking to my mom about it, everytime I even try to say I may like someone she'll just say "use protection!" and such, not even really listening to how happy I am then, she can't even recognize that. I just... hate all the vanity and distrust thrown at me when I really do nothing, so I'm not doing anything at all to deserve so much hate, bleh. I'm glad that Cathy at least does put up with it better than I do, even if she doesn't want to, acceptance takes a fair degree of effort. I break down or becoming irrate more openly than she does, so it's harder for me to deal with it. I also really understand the feeling of being trapped and somewhat helpless, and I just feel that telling someone, as she too eventually does, is the best way of being able to overcome something. When all else fails, it is time to just ask for help, before you truly become unable to help yourself.
Like Cathy, I can say that I'm probably very plain but okay to look at. Like her, my clothes are all bought for me, though I'm not as restricted, it's moreso that I just hate clothes shopping (really, I despise shopping for myself). You can probably find somethings she has experienced to match things you've went through, yourself. So, I hope you've enjoyed, or perhaps became mildly intrigued by this character. She may be meek and quiet like a cat, but like anyone else, she just really wants to have her chance at life. She's the kind of person you just want to make smile, and you feel anything you say she would listen to carefully. She could be anyone's best friend, which just makes me happy to say that I may not have many friends, but this endearing Cat is one of the best fictional characters a person could get to know and grow from experiencing her story.
No comments:
Post a Comment