White Oleander

“So often when I was with her, she was unreachable. Whenever she turned her steep focus to me, I felt the warmth that flowers must feel when they bloom through the snow, under the first concentrated rays of the sun.”

In the novel’s exposition, Astrid is only 12 years old and still living with her mother. She depends entirely on her and sees the world in whatever way Ingrid decides. Astrid is fully under her mother’s wing and feels comfortable there. Throughout the novel, Astrid uses descriptive symbolism as she compares the people in her life to flowers and the forces of nature. Here, Astrid compares herself at age 12 to a flower just beginning to push through the snow of a dark winter, soaking up her mother’s warmth. She does not know that the next few years will be filled with internal and external struggles. Ingrid is a poet who is both intelligent and deeply troubled, and Astrid soaks up whatever small amounts of attention she can get from her. This quote helps illustrate the theme, The Delicate Balance of Mother-Daughter Relationships.

“It was only natural to want to destroy something you could never have.”

As Astrid grows up, she learns the truth about her mother’s character and motivations. Ingrid is sociopathic and narcissistic; she cares only about her feelings and how she can manipulate others to play to her needs.