White Oleander (2002): Toxic Beauty and Narcissistic Mothers

foreign ER is one of the most fascinating and complex female antagonists I've ever come across this story is a gold mine of unhinged female characters so I want to talk about it White Oleander was initially a debut novel of Janet Fitch which saw the light of day in 1999. within two weeks of its publication White Oleander was chosen by Oprah for her book club which led to the novel becoming a bestseller it was adapted into a film in 2002. White Oleander follows the Journey of a girl named Astrid from the time she is 12 in the book and 15 in the movie to the time she becomes a legal adult Astrid gets thrown into the foster care system after her mother is charged with the murder of her ex-lover the biggest theme of this story is motherhood and mother daughter conflict I want to examine what kind of mothers Astrid meets and how they shape her on her way to adulthood thank you when you first meet Astrid and her mother Ingrid they are living in Los Angeles Ingot is earning a living as a pay stub artist for a Cinema Scene movie magazine she's also a gifted poet in the novel and a brilliant artist in the movie adaptation can't be an artist if you don't see Inger is entitled judgmental and unpredictable but also extremely charming and mesmerizing Ingrid says she never sleeps and never eats she never lets a man stay the night she never apologizes never explains Ingrid has a very limited interest in her daughter's life she's an artist she doesn't care about things like parents night she's never even cooked a proper meal for Astrid all they eat are things like yogurt peanut butter and canned tuna we don't have any eggs never have any eggs in the beginning Astrid idolizes and romanticizes Ingrid to the point of seeing herself as a burden in her mother's free-spirited life quote I tried not to make it worse by asking for things pulling her down with my thoughts I had seen girls clam off when you close and complain about what their mothers made for dinner I was always mortified didn't they know they would tying their mother's to the ground worn chains ashamed of their prisoners end quote all her childhood Astrid walked on eggshells around her mother trying not to upset and disappoint her it's not surprising That You Don't See Astrid having friends Ingrid would disapprove of any of them but most of the time Astrid confuses Ingrid's control in nature with affection quote elected when my mother shaped me this way I thought clay must feel happy in the good Potter's hand end quote Ingrid is fond of saying that she and Astrid are descendants of the Vikings that it's them against the whole world men are unworthy and fathers are irrelevant I'm your father Ingrid would say when Astrid questioned her about him by isolating her daughter from everyone and everything Ingrid planted the seed of Abandonment fears and Astrid's had quote I never told her that I wished I had a father that I wanted to go to camp in summertime that sometimes she scared me I was afraid she would fly away and I would end up alone end quote what a man by the name Barry comes into Ingrid's life she slowly throws all her rules out of the window Barry spent the night yeah at first she's not interested in him he isn't her type tell him I was killed in a climbing accident in the Himalayas but slowly but surely Barry ends up winning her heart Astrid is genuinely excited for her mother and she quickly begins fantasizing about their ideal family however very soon loses interest in Ingrid for him she was just a conquest this wounds Ingrid's pride and she decides to take revenge on him she begins following Barry breaking into his house destroying his clothes Astrid is always by her side witnessing her mother's descent into the madness at one point Ingrid erases Barry's hard drive and when he comes to confront her about it she stabs his hand with a knife after this crazy night Ingrid completely goes off the rails she decides to poison Barry with white oleander sap mixed with a chemical substance which makes the absorption of the Oleander poison through the skin easier together with Astrid she drives to Mexico to get it Janet Fitch explained quote that's a common experience many women get involved with a man that you pretty much know isn't suitable and you're kind of breaking your rules but he's attractive in some unknown way and then he doesn't even realize what a sacrifice you are making by being with him and he dumps you and you're just so angry yourself for breaking your rules and angry at him for not realizing what he's given up I think it's one step from that to if you were an extreme unbalanced person just going off the deep end end quote Ingrid displays no emotion when Barry eventually dies and she's charged with his murder 35 years to life at a Maximum Security Prison she believes that what she did was justified she took someone else's life just because she wanted to stop feeling humiliated and weak for falling in love but my Redemption I don't want to be redeemed I regret nothing it didn't even cross her mind that this selfish act would lead to her daughter's suffering for years to come Astrid's first foster mother is star a former stripper and recovering drug addict and alcoholic who lives in a double-wide trailer in a rural area come on Ian she has four kids in the novel and three in the movie two of them are her own and other two are foster children have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior star is a pseudo-christian she boasts about being saved by Jesus and pushes his beliefs onto her kids but doesn't really walk the walk herself and her daughter caroly can see right through her hypocrisy they shouldn't be doing it they're not even married star's motivation for fostering kids is obviously a financial one it seems to be her only income yet it's also her way to redeem herself from the past and keep herself on the right path compared to Ingrid's home which is filled with melancholic white and blue colors the clothes Astrid and Ingrid wear are also like that very Serene and Airy star's home is a jarring contrast to that her whole wardrobe consists of hot toxic 80s colors her house is cluttered and not in a messy artistic kind of way like Ingrid's but despite Stars attacking provocative style Astrid acknowledges that she still alluring and beautiful in her own way quote you couldn't help looking at her I'd never seen anyone with a figure like that only in the back pages of the LA weekly chewing on the phone chord but her energy was overwhelming she never stopped talking laughing lecturing smoking I wondered what she was like on a drug end quote in every foster home Astrid acts like a chameleon she quickly adapts to the environment and shapes herself into the version her foster mother would like to see so it doesn't take long for Astra to accept Jesus Christ as her personal Savior and start wearing bright Fabrics in a way star is Astrid's introduction into Womanhood she buys her her first bra and heels I want them things hanging to your knees when you're 30. faith is the first thing Astrid tries to hang on to after getting separated from Ingrid she misses her badly and sees the religion as a step towards her and her mother's healing Ingrid spell hasn't dissipated yet so when Astrid and Ingrid meet in prison for the first time since separation you see that Astrid is still completely in love with her mother you're so beautiful in the novel this meeting is actually the first time when Ingrid shows any interest in Astrid's well-being because she has missed her too but soon Ingrid realizes that she is losing grip on her daughter she's shocked and outraged to find out that Astrid got baptized not to them in the movie Ingrid's words forced Astrid to immediately reap off her cross necklace showcasing how much power Ingrid still has over her daughter but in the novel Astrid gradually loses interest in religion as she gets sicker and sicker with a sin virus and this virus is having feelings for star's boyfriend's right it's nice to meet you in the book Uncle Ray as kids call him is a Vietnam veteran almost a 50 year old man with two missing fingers who smokes pot in his free time he has a son and technically he's still married but he doesn't really care if he ever meets his old family again he cheated on his wife with star who was still working as a topless waitress when they first met to Star he is perfect he does seem decent he cares about the kids and he's hard-working she suffered enough in her life doesn't she deserve some help in love Rey is the best man I ever had and I've lived too long and come too far to blow it now this description of Uncle Ray is pretty important because no 14 or 15 year old girl in her right mind would be attracted to a man like this it's a huge age Gap and the filmmakers chickened out of portraying Ray this way instead he's a hot dude in his 30s Max at first Astrid and Rey truly bond with each other like father and daughter he is the first person to comfort Astrid wipe her tears and make her feel safe but after its relationships with Mana understandably complicated Ingrid never really knew how to talk to her child and what was a appropriate and what wasn't she told Astrid everything about her troubles with men how they made love to her and how much she hated them he made love to me and then said I had to leave as a consequence Astrid either completely ignores and despises the men in her foster families so she gets attached to them sexually Uncle Ray falls into the second category it's compelling that the most important women in Astrid's life at this time star and Ingrid understand that something is not right about Astrid's relationship with Rey and they try preventing it in the ways they know best you don't see it in the movie but Ingrid does care about Astrid's safety and tells him many times in person and in her letters to her to stay away from Rey especially if he's been also nice Ingrid tells Astra to find a lover her age instead star is not trying to protect Astrid like Ingrid she sees her as a threat and someone who is trying to infringe on her happiness so the fastest way to resolve this situation would be to just get rid of the sad threat on calling children services I want you to know this is a turning point for Astrid's character she compares herself to her mother and wonders what Ingrid would have done in this situation Ingrid would spare nothing to have what she wanted so Astra decides to manipulate star and she is aware that what she is doing is evil he might be mad if he knew you sent me away because you were jealous but Astra doesn't do it only because of Rey she loves star and she loves star's kids she doesn't want to be placed in another foster home if Rey had been a proper adult he would have rejected Astrid's advances but he wasn't and he didn't while Rey and Astrid explore his every job site using their bodies star is going insane she starts drinking again her mood swings from manic to depressed since she can't do anything about Astrid she takes her anger out on her biological kids which leads to her daughter running away from home the mess with star makes Astrid realize that she is not that different from Ingrid they both poison people around them quote I was the snake in the garden I was bad I had done bad things I had hurt people and the worst of it was I didn't want to stop end quote tensions in the household come to her head one night during the fight between star and Rey star grabs the gun comes into Astrid's room and shoots her in the shoulder and hip star's son Davey is the one who saves Astrid's Life by calling 9-1-1 Astrid promises him not to tell on star star and Rey flee and Astrid never hears from them ever again foreign forward the movie and the book differ from each other greatly the movie wanted to stay within PG-13 rating plus the runtime simply made it impossible to explore each and every Foster family but there is one more major theme that infiltrates the plot of White Oleander and it is the double-aged sword of Beauty for Ingrid beauty is her law her religion you can do anything you want as long as you're beautiful and if you aren't you're nothing our beauty is our power our strength she instilled this belief in her daughter since she was little but an Astrid's experience it isn't as simple her beauty causes her most suffering it hurts more than it helps and she doesn't see it as an advantage first of all there is a big distinction between Ingrid's and Astrid's Beauty as Uncle Ray points out Ingrid looks like she can easily take a bite out of you while Astrid is the sweetheart type White Oleander makes a point that just being pretty won't take you far if you don't know how to use it and if you don't have other skills people are swayed by Ingrid she knows how to read them and what to say while in prison she develops a cult following that believes that she is number one innocent and number two a genius we visit your mother she's a project in women's studies in this case her beauty does help her and probably it is what attracts people in the first place but if she wasn't smart educated and articulate didn't know how to sweet talk and manipulate and spin her story to make herself look like a victim not many people would have lined up behind her now Astrid she's a foster child which already makes her extremely vulnerable but put a pretty face on top of it and it might become just another ingredient in a recipe for a disaster no doubt it helps attract attention but it's not always the good kind in the beginning Astrid is naive and she likes the attention Uncle Ray gives her and she equates it to love quote what it pretty matter I had thought that so many times with my mother a person didn't need to be beautiful they just needed to be loved but I couldn't help wanting it if that was the way I could be loved to be beautiful I'd take it end quote but very soon Astrid encounters the envy and the contempt from Star the situation which ends horribly Astrid's next Foster family is a couple with two small kids and they take Astrid to be their unpaid Nanny and do other things around the house which makes Astrid extremely depressed her foster mother again expresses envy and resentment but not so much towards Astrid but towards their neighbor Olivia a beautiful wealthy black woman who is a sex worker Olivia becomes another example of a woman who knows how to use her beauty and turn it to her Advantage but she has a very hedonistic approach to life and is kind of cynical she literally tells Astrid It won't always be so hard beautiful girls have certain advantages she also tells her that this is the man's world and she gives men what they want and that love is an illusion Astrid wants to believe Olivia that everything will get better but in reality it doesn't Astrid romanticizes Olivia's lifestyle and gets deeply attached to her because she's herself miserable it's very interesting that once more Ingrid tries to protect Astrid from the pain and heartbreak don't do it again Astrid do what again attach yourself to anyone who shows you the least bit of attention because you're lonely Ingrid is cruel with her words but almost everything she spits out of her mouth and ends up being true when at one point Astrid is placed in the house of a woman named Emilia from Argentina who stars her foster children Ingrid in her letters inside Astrid to call Children's Services every day and yell her head off until they change her placement as Janet Fitch says her mother keeps her from falling all the way through no matter the crazy advice at one point in the story Astrid gets mauled by stray dogs while walking into a neighborhood they bite her badly enough to require stitches but she isn't upset that she will end up with permanent scars quote in a perverse way I was glad for the stitches glad it would show that there would be scars what was the point in just being hurt on the inside elected better this way beauty was deceptive I would rather wear my pain my ugliness end quote another incident that makes us with perceive her beauty as a curse happens when she is in a children's center and a gang of girls jumps her twice because someone's boyfriend thought Astrid was pretty after this Esther decides to chop her hair off in order not to attract attention a very fascinating conversation about about beauty occurs afterwards between Astrid and one of the boys at the center named Paul looks don't interest me that's easy for you to say you've never been ugly I do believe that Paul is generally correct obviously we as people like things to be pretty that is why we create whole less Aesthetics but I also believe that it differs Case by case you don't put people in the boxes you see them as individuals with their own stories and this is what White Oleander is trying to portray I love this quote from the novel this is basically the conclusion as it comes to regarding Beauty First of all she says about Paul I could tell he imagined Beauty attention would feel like love this is something Astrid believed in when she was with Uncle Ray but now having gone through many things she has a completely different Outlook quote what was Beauty unless you intended to use it like a hammer or a key it was just something for other people to use and admire and we despise to nail their dreams onto like a picture hanger on a blank wall and so many girls saying use me dream me end quote it's also important to know that Ingrid and Astrid have different opinions on what's considered beautiful Ingrid is more close-minded what are they cartoons no they're not Astrid likes to draw she's very talented in this department and she sends all her drawings of all her foster family members to Ingrid and this skill allows her to see beauty where others do not it's so funny in the book she doesn't consider Paul to be ugly she thinks to herself what did he get the idea he was ugly bad skin could happen to anyone and I'm going to jump ahead and say that in the end she starts dating Paul the movie also follows a certain cold as ice aesthetic one foster mom Claire who is compared to Audrey Hepburn in the book is turned into a blondie in the movie which I didn't mind because I thought the people behind the movie were going for the idea that Astrid's foster moms are basically versions of Ingrid every one of them has a certain personality trait that Ingrid possesses however the last foster mom Rina has brown hair and she's completely removed from the movie poster so I was giving the movie too much credit Claire Richards becomes Astrid's second foster mom in the movie She's described as Charming but shy woman with a wide lovely smile on her face Claire is a struggling actress and her husband Mark Ron in the book is a producer and television who is rarely home Claire is an extremely loving polite but emotionally fragile person she's a big people pleaser making sure that everything is perfect and everyone is happy Claire's house looks very clean and spacious painted in a wide and beige colors with an amazing view of the ocean but it almost looks too perfect and too big for two people it reflects Claire's inner sadness and loneliness Claire is a bit of an anxious mom type she treats Astrid like a five-year-old scared to leave her alone even for a moment are you okay yeah thinking Astrid will end up loving this trade about Claire because Ingrid has never cooked a full meal for her or greeted her with a sandwich and a glass of iced tea after school to ask how her day was but soon the roles get reversed and Astrid takes the role of a mother she views Claire as a gentle flower who cries very easily quote and wanted the world to be beautiful for her I wanted things to work out I always had a great day no matter what end quote Astrid becomes very protective of Claire and jealous of Claire's husband whom she sees as a source of all evil in Claire's life Mark left his previous wife for Claire and you know what people usually say you lose them the same way you get them so now Claire is obsessed with the idea that Mark is cheating on her when he is away which is never 100 confirmed I think it's because he's having an affair he wouldn't have an affair glare has serious mental health issues she gets very depressed she's scared of many things and she's very superstitious and paranoid she can't have her own children and her acting career is not existent she's too sensitive for the industry like the process it you know maybe too painful for me Mark is well aware of his wife's issues but he's trying very hard to ignore the truth like Star Mark and Claire decide to foster a child for selfish reasons they don't want to help Astrid they want Astrid to help them she's supposed to be a sidewatch for Claire entertain her while Mark is away and make sure nothing bad happens one day Astrid notices a letter in the mail from Ingrid but it isn't for her it's for Claire astrud never talked about Claire and her letters to her mother because she knew Ingrid wouldn't like her how long has my mother been writing it oh being a soft insecure individual Claire is impressed by Ingrid's character and for some reason not intimidated by the fact that she is a murderer so she wants to meet her she's so strong and talented during their visit Ingrid is clearly envious of the connection her daughter has developed and she tells Astrid that she would like to speak with Claire in private she ends up convincing Claire that her husband is indeed having an affair because the movie jumps in time it might look like Ingrid acted as a catalyst behind Claire's decision to take her own life but in the book it's more complicated than that Claire starts taking antidepressants she starts drinking and talking about different ways you can analyze yourself at one point Astra tells Mark everything but he doesn't think it's that serious instead of help Claire gets another vacation which doesn't improve her mental state and it doesn't stop the fights between her and Mark in the end mark leaves Claire telling her that they probably should send Astrid back because Claire isn't getting any better in his crazy mind he's giving Claire time to think it over but in reality he's once again running away from the conflict and leaving Jesus person alone with a child a decision that leads to fatal consequences in the book after Astrid finds Claire dead she calls to Mark and when he comes back he breaks into sobs saying that he was afraid of this for years that he wasn't perfect but he loved her and that Astrid can still stay to all of which Astrid simply answers why couldn't you just have loved her more foreign was everything to Astrid she was the first person to discover the real her so her death changed everything Astrid couldn't stay with Mark she didn't like him and it was pointless to be there without Claire too painful so she was sent to a children's center which had a reputation of being the worst place to be in but Astrid actually liked it there at this point Astrid is on her way to self-destruction she distances herself from Ingrid she completely despises her I'm not coming back I wanted to tell you that in person and she starts believing that she doesn't deserve a good life that she is not herself without all the wounds and scars that it's better to stay off nice people so as not to hurt them those people are not the enemy mother we are so when she has an interview with a very good family who wants to take her in she refuses to go with them instead she picks Rina a Russian immigrant who becomes Astrid's last foster mom I want her Rina is a woman with a Bohemian lifestyle she's a free bird and the only reason why she Fosters teenagers is to make them her employees and business partners besides Astrid she has two other teenage girls one of whom is pregnant together they go through trash bins located in reach her neighborhoods and then sell Their fines at flea markets not much information is provided about Rina she doesn't have a backstory like the other moms she's a very independent and very simple she values work and money she convinces Astrid to sell all the expensive clothes Claire bought her as a present fast is gone sentimental stupid Rina is not abusive she provides basic necessities to girls but she's not a mother figure she doesn't care what kind of troubles you're going through or if you need a shoulder to cry on you deal with your on your own basically Rina never wanted to have her own kids babies made her sick however Rina gives girls complete freedom to do whatever and they do respect her for that and that's also what Astrid thinks she wants because she's 17 and she's done with getting attached to people who eventually leave her Astrid's looks reflect how she truly feels inside she starts dressing in black wearing piercings and darker makeup she drinks and smokes and takes drugs she sleeps with rina's boyfriend just because Claire was the only person who invested in her future who believed in her and saw how talented she was they're really really beautiful and you know she's never even studied she's completely self-taught but now without her she doesn't see any point in going to college she's punishing herself and she's punishing Ingrid for being a bad mom asked me my God what's wrong Mom you don't like my outfit at one point Ingrid's attorney finds Astrid to ask her for a favor to lie for her mother in court and while at first Astrid wants nothing to do with Ingrid she ultimately understands that this is her last chance to get answers to the questions she's been asking herself almost all her life for the first time Ingrid needed something from her for the first time Astrid had power over her mother and not the other way around so she agrees to talk to her Astrid is interested in two things related to her past her father and a woman named Annie whom she distantly remembers the movie and the book differ in their descriptions of Astrid's father in the film Ingrid tells Astrid that her father left them for another woman when she was little but in the novel Ingrid says that she was the one who decided to end their relationship because Astrid's father was a child himself he was living off of them and one time he left Astrid alone in the house and the fire broke out luckily a neighbor heard the screaming I think the people behind the movie changed it in order to create a more concrete reason for Ingrid to kill Barry she admits that she loved Astrid's father and that she had a perfect vision for their family I thought Klaus would live happily ever after that's what I thought so I think the idea was that when Barry essentially ghosted her her old wound reopened this story about her father doesn't hurt Astrid as much as finding out that at one point Ingrid abandoned her for a year and their neighbor Annie was taking care of her I was used to having time to think and you just wanted wanted for all her life Astrid suffered from a fear of Abandonment she had nightmares about Ingrid leaving her alone not knowing that this had already happened it all made sense now I was always waiting for you mother that's the constant in my life waiting for you their meeting ends with Ingrid actual Express and some regret for how her decisions affected her daughter I would however pretty words don't mean anything to Astrid she needs something more tangible a sacrifice tell me you would sacrifice the rest of your life to have me back the way I was she wants Ingrid to let her go to break the invisible chains to stop following her like a ghost and Ingrid gives it to her she chooses not to use Astrid's testimony the movie's ending makes it seem like Astrid has finally found her true self she lives in New York with Paul from the Children's Center both of them are artists they draw Astrid has been created in her personal Museum making small altars from suitcases dedicated to each of her mothers as Janet Fitch explains quote in the end I wanted to show that the people who form you remain with you and you yourself are the suitcase carrying all this around and quote having reflected on the life with her mother Astrid understands that Ingrid still loves her in her own messed up way no matter how much she's damaged me no matter how flawed she is I know my mother loves me in the novel ending is not as perfect and clear cut Astrid and Paul got off to live in Berlin which Janet Fitch chose for its significance Berlin is built on ruins and so are Paul and Astrid it's a perfect place for them to reconcile with their past Astrid and Paul seem to have a relatively good relationship at first glance but they moved from place to place and struggle financially moreover Astrid mentions a professor at her art school who is very impressed by her work and is trying to take her to dinner and she's afraid she's going to cheat on Paul Astrid also finds her real father and is disappointed with him judging him like Ingrid Astrid continues corresponding with her mother they write to each other a couple of times a month and sometimes Ingrid sends her money but this is not all soon Ingrid is found innocent and Astrid fights her desire to return to LA to be with her mother quote to be my mother's daughter again it was an idea more seductive than any man end quote every reader chooses for themselves if this is a happy ending and whether Astrid is strong enough to resist her urges and Temptations I do love the book's ending since it's way more realistic the older you get the more you realize how similar you are to your parents and how hard it is to break certain patterns of behavior that you inherited so to speak the women of white aliander are flawed some more than the others but I love how Astrid is able to find good qualities in every one of them and learn something from them some might see Ingrid as a monster but as Janet Fitch said she expresses an unspoken desire of many people to just not care about others to have absolute freedom with no responsibilities dragging you down but in reality we are more compassionate than that and we can't live without forming deep relationships with other people what I personally took from widely under is that a perfect mother does not exist and some women probably aren't me to be mothers to begin with

Channel: antiheroines

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Keywords: white oleander 2002, white oleander 1999, white oleander janet fitch, white oleander movie, white oleander book, white oleander book vs movie, white oleander analysis, White Oleander (2002): Toxic Beauty and Narcissistic Mothers, antiheroines, a woman unhinged

Id: EzbY9CsTfD8

Length: 26min 54sec (1614 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023