Sociology refers to this novel in many different ways. The family in the story, Flowers in the Attic, written by V.C. Andrews, begins as a procreative family, a family established through marriage, comprising the mother (Mrs. Dollanger), the father (Mr. Dollanger), and the son. four children: Cathy (the eldest daughter), Chris (the second eldest son), Carrie and Corey (the young twins). A conflict begins when the father dies in a car accident, so the mother and her four children have to move to her wealthy parents' estate because they have no money and no place to stay. After the father's death, the children's norms changed. The children's norm was to remain hidden alone in the basement because Mrs. Dollanger can only regain the right to inherit her father's estate by falsifying that she has no children by her husband who was also her uncle. The original agreement was that they could move out of the basement when their grandfather died. The rules of the house were given by her dying grandfather who stipulated that if Mrs. Dollanger had children she would be disinherited again. The most important family value was not to have children for sin and not to marry within the family, which is why Mrs. Dollanger was initially disinherited. The grandmother had the highest status in the family because she ordered and punished the four grandchildren and Mrs. Dollanger. The grandmother at that point now had a status of authority over the grandfather because he was ill in his dying bed. This goes against the definition of sexism, where men are seen as superior to women. Older sister Cathy begins to encounter role conflict within herself. She takes on the role of a sister and also depicts a mother, because she is the one who takes care of her younger sister and brother. Oddly enough, she takes on the role of her brother Chris's sexual partner, because they don't yet understand that this is wrong due to their entrapment in society. Mrs. Dollanger then receives a sanction when her father dies, namely to inherit her father's property. This was his reward for his father who thought he had no children. Her sanction at the beginning of the novel was the punishment of marrying her half-brother by her father who disinherited her..