The article materialistic values by Tim Kasser, Richard M. Ryan, Charles E. Couchman, and Kennon M. Sheldon argues that there are severe consequences to having materialistic values in life. In the article the authors discuss how exposure to materialistic values, competence, and society has effected Americans throughout time

Exposure to materialistic values: “exposure comes from parental views and values the lifestyle of family members impacts one early on in life.” In the novel the main character Amory is shown a material lifestyle from day one through his mother who spoils him, and the problem with this is that these unimportant values lead to him realizing what actually is important in his life when its too late to change it.

Competence: people with strong personalities have difficulty finding purposes for themselves in life and because of their lower self esteem they resort to settling for materialism.
Similarly, in this side of paradise the main character focuses on the wrong places in his life when trying to find happiness for himself, and because of his strong personality it takes him a while to realize that.

Society: “American culture of consumption often undermines personal well being” and leads people to acting in ways that will destroy their social communities, “a healthy society is based on people helping one another.”
In this side of Paradise Amory grows up in a society based on wealth, class, and of course materialism and it leads him to long for something more meaningful in life, and it takes him a long time to find that.

Conclusion: materialism is still very much presented in today’s society and leads to false priorities, people lose themselves in the midst of it and sometimes by the time they realize what’s important its too late and they have already lost everything that they care about just like the main character in my novel.