"You never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy" Erick Hoffer. Through out history, society has supported science to look forward for inventions to improve conformity in life; this fact has changed humanity's priorities and therefore, the world itself. In other words, our science development has always had the destination for easier and longer life; however, we do not notice how this is all about materialism and how it devalues our sense for life. In Windflower by Gabrielle Roy, the Inuit culture is expressed as peaceful and free, but in contrast the white way of living is considered as hostile and imprisoning and has a negative impact on Elsa Kumachuk's life and her relationships. Materialism has altered her life and in this case, because of her innocence and ignorance, in an unfortunate way, leaving others with the consequences of her mistakes.
To begin, Elsa had lived her entire life with her culture, the Inuit or Eskimo.
English: Gabrielle Roy, 1945.
Photograph of an Alaska Native woman wearing a coa...
ElsaHowever, her family had been fairly influenced by the white culture and as an example, Elsa's attendance to school and Winnie's habit for smoking. When Jimmy is born, Elsa learns about the facilities the white culture offered when raising a child. She's attracted to these material necessities which enslaves her and changes her judgement about her preferences in life. Even though, she tries to find a middle point between her culture and the white culture she's constantly being possessed by materialism and this eventually shaped her as she matured with the time. "Materialism refers to the importance people attach to worldly possessions... If worldly possessions are viewed as a part of the self, it follows that an unintentional loss of possessions should be regarded as a loss of the self". ("Study Finds Craving Material Things". 7/2/2001.) This quote can be...