The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Contrasting Materialism Effects Society revolves around numerous values, and one that makes a significant change in a person is their standpoint on materialism. the way they embrace materialism. In the nonfiction memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls follows the story of the Walls family who lived a nomadic lifestyle across America from the 1960’s through the 1980’s. On the contrary, the realistic fiction novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts members of the upper class in New York in the 1920’s. There is a drastic difference between the lives of Rex and Rose Mary Walls, who are the parents in the Walls family that chose to live a nomadic lifestyle, and the lives of the rich in New York. Daisy and Tom Buchanan are a couple in the Great Gatsby who are on the opposite side of the wealth spectrum. They

Differing from the poverty RoseMary faces, Daisy Buchanan lives a rich and lavish life in which she treats her daughter as if she was a prop to impress her friends. As Daisy’s daughter Pammy enters the room Daisy responds to her young daughter's confusion, “‘That’s because your mother wanted to show you off.’ Her face bent into the single wrinkle of the small, white neck. You dream, you dream. You absolute little dream.’ ‘Yes,’ admitted the child calmly. “Aunt Jordan’s got a white dress too.’ ‘How do you like mother’s friends?’ Daisy turned her around so that she faced Gatsby. ‘Do you think they’re pretty?’” (4 pages down from chapter 7). Daisy Buchanan has a caretaker to look after Pammy and only calls to see Pammy when she wants to show her off. Daisy uses her daughter as if she were a prop to parade her around her friends, which reveals that her main priorities are materialistic. She cares more about the idea of having a pretty daughter rather than taking care of and loving her, which will eventually sever the mother-daughter bond they could have