Lily is disinherited?! I am now shocked, once again, reading The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. The death of her aunt came as a surprise to me, but what was more of a surprise was when the lawyer said, "'to my niece Lily Bart ten thousand dollars...and the residue of my estate to my dear cousin and name-sake, Grace Julia Stepney'" (Wharton 180). Lily should have gotten that money. Lily needed that money.

 I know that everyone makes mistakes. Lily believes that the choices she has made, and the consequences that came from them, cannot be fixed. She is left with only one friend, one friend who hates her, and ten thousand dollars. She says to Gerty that, "...the truth about any girl is that once she's talked about she's done for; and the more she explains her case the worse it looks" (Wharton 183). I connect this with high school. I am now entering my senior year at beautiful Roncalli High School, and have got a pretty good feel for everyone in my class and other classes. It is a definite truth, though, that there are people who are talked about, some good and some bad. If a rumor is around about a girl, she is pretty much stuck with that rumor until proven innocent. It doesn't mean that she is completely done for, though because people can change. They can fix their past problems and move on.

 Also, I love Lily's sarcastic answer to Gerty when asked to tell the whole truth exactly from the beginning. It lifted the situation a little bit and is something I would do and I just liked the sarcastic story.