Family

     As I continue to read The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton I come to realize how much a person's family molds the person.  Lily Bart has depended on her beauty to win over a rich man.  Her mother used Lily's beauty as if "it was the last asset in their fortunes" (Wharton, 26).  As a young child Lily was both rich and poor.  She knew what it was like to have everything and also to have nothing.  She knew that she did not want a man just because he was rich.  However she grew up in an environment where being wealthy meant being successful.  Lily has been taught to use her looks to get her a man, and her different feelings and choices reflect her parents' feeling and choices when she was little.  I have realized that I possess aspects from both my father and my mother.  I know I get my drive from my dad because I always saw him being focused and driven when I was young.  I looked up to them, and just like Lily Bart, I have possessed many of their qualities.