The Self-Absorption of Brooke Montgomery

Of all the personalities she could be, Brooke Montgomery, the alter ego of Megan
Marsho, was unbelievably rude and ridiculously spoiled. Montgomery believed that the world
revolved around her and that it was acceptable in every situation to degrade others. Marsho chose
to make her alter ego seem this way because she wanted to test a theory: going by an alter ego
for a day can make you more educated about how millennials are looked upon today.
Maybe Montgomerys attitude problem was her fault, but maybe, instead, it was the fault
of her parents. In the 1970s, parents were trying to instill confidence in their children because
they thought it would make them more successful. Roy Baumeister, the editor of Self-Esteem:
The Puzzle of Low Self-Regard says that, The early findings showed that, indeed, kids with high
self-esteem did better in school and were less likely to be in various kinds of trouble. Its just that
weve learned later that self-esteem is a result, not a cause. Baumeister says this because it was
discovered that by constantly pushing confidence on children to make them more successful it, in
turn, made them self-absorbed brats. Joel Stein backs up Baumeisters theory in his article, The
Me Me Me Generation, by saying All that self-esteem leads them to be disappointed when the
world refuses to affirm how great they know they are. From these studies and theories, the selfabsorbed attitude of Brooke Montgomery was bought by those surrounding Marsho because it
was a very common attribute of teens today.
Marsho decided to first play the role of Brooke Montgomery in the cafeteria at breakfast
one morning. Instead of sitting with her typical group of friends, she sat with a group of not-so
familiar faces. In order to get more observations, Marsho had her normal friend group sitting
nearby, in order to see and hear the reactions of the students at Brooke Montgomerys table.
Montgomery proceeded to sit down with the kids, without going up to get food. As she watched

the students fill the seats of the table with their full breakfast plates, the students began asking if
she was going to get anything to eat, since she had just been sitting there the whole time.
Montgomery replied, Wait, I have to get up to get my own food? This is my first time in the
cafeteria, and I thought somebody was going to wait on us? and I have always had a maid or a
server to take care of this for me. Montgomery moved on from her spoiled comments about
being served, to brag more about her lavish, upper-class lifestyle she had always known. The act
that Marsho had created that morning left the students with confused looks and a not so good
reputation for Brooke Montgomery with this new group of people.
The busy day of Montgomery continued after the cafeteria incident, with a trip to the gas
station to fill up her car with gas. Montgomery and her friend pulled up to the gas pump, sat in
the car for about five minutes, and finally stepped out to begin pacing around the pump with a
not so pleased look on her face. Storming into the gas stations store, she approached the
employee working that afternoon and said, So is anybody going to come pump my car, or are
you just not going to do your job? At that moment, Marsho could feel the judgment not only
from the worker, but the woman standing behind her in the line. With a tone of laughter, the
worker replied, Maam, did your parents never teach you how to pump gas, because you wont
find one gas station around here that willingly pumps gas for their customers. Montgomery,
with the same spoiled attitude from breakfast, explained how she had never been taught to pump
gas since she her parents or a worker had always done it for her. Luckily, the employee was a
nice middle-aged man, and offered to teach Montgomery how to pump gas for future reference.
The whole time the man was helping, Marsho couldnt help but think about what was truly going
through his head, and how he was probably going to tell his family at dinner about the dumb
college student that did not know how to pump gas. Once the gas tank was full, the man wished

Montgomery luck as she got in the car without thanking him. He made his way back into the
store, giggling to himself and shaking his head all the way to the doors.
When Marsho received the task of playing the role of an alter ego for a day, she
immediately thought about how easy it would be for her, but was soon faced with the reality of
how difficult it actually was. First of all, the alter ego could not be any random role. The persona
had to support the point Marsho was trying to prove, which was that millennials are very selfabsorbed and reliant on others. Marsho had put together ideas from friends, and that is how she
came up with Brooke Montgomery. Secondly, finding people that would take Marsho seriously
was a problem. Being an athlete at the school, Marsho knows a good amount of people, and is
typically liked by almost everybody. Therefore, she had to figure out where to act out the persona
of Brooke Montgomery, and who she could play this role around that wouldnt know her true
identity of Megan Marsho. The Final struggle was actually playing out the role of Montgomery.
Like mentioned earlier, according to Marsho, she is not a bad person. She is a pretty level headed
girl, and gets along with people easily, so acting like a spoiled brat was very difficult for her.
Marsho found that it was hardest to be Montgomery after she felt that first bad look and
judgement from somebody. This guilt made it difficult to continue playing the persona. Overall,
the task of being an alter ego for a day had not been what was expected.
Going into the project of Brooke Montgomery, Marsho expected people to not take the
role seriously. She prepared herself to be laughed at, and not taken seriously for acting like a
spoiled, rich girl. Marsho had never met somebody as bratty as Montgomery, so she had no idea
as to what other people would think. She had assumed people would have just overlooked the
attitude, and not have had as much of a reaction as people did. For example, the man at the gas
station that questioned Montgomery about her parents teaching her a basic skill like pumping

gas. That man had the nerve to call out Montgomery, which Marsho never expected somebody to
do that during the project. For Marsho, she admitted that if she had ever gotten to meet Brooke
Montgomery, than she would have judged her rich-girl attitude, but would have overlooked her
and continued on with her day.
Although millennials are self-absorbed and constantly dependent on others, many are the
slight exception by exceeding in greatness of the generations before them. In Joel Steins article
mentioned earlier, he says, In fact, a lot of what counts as typical millennial behavior is how
rich kids have always behaved. Here, Stein is suggests that millennials are no different than
generations before them. Millennials today, according to Stein, are following the lead of all the
other generations. Stein also argues, Millennials are more accepting of differences, not just
among gays, women and minorities but in everyone, proving that not all millennials are selfabsorbed. There is that group of todays generation that is here to better society.
Earlier generations should not lose hope in millennials and future generations to come,
but help shape and teach millennials on how to be proper people in this world. Many people
make the mistake of only focusing on the negatives of millennials and how little they benefit our
society. In, The Dumbest Generation? Dont Be Dumb, Sharon Begley reviews Mark
Bauerleins The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and
Jeopardizes Our Future (Or Dont Trust Anyone Under 30. Baurlein sees millennials as an
intellectual, economic, and civic disaster in the making. With negative influences like Baurlein,
todays teens will only lose faith in themselves to break free from the typical millennial
reputation. Stein says, But a generations greatness isnt determined by data; its determined by
how they react to the challenges that befall them. This is where society can change the future of
millennials to come. Although millennials today are self-absorbed and are dependent on others,

doesnt mean the next generation has to be the same. Millennials must come to the realization of
how they were raised and what they are contributing to society, and see what they can change in
the generation that is next in line.

Work Cited
Begley, Sharon. "Culture: The Dumbest Generation? Don't Be Dumb." Newsweek.com. Newsweek, 24
May 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Stein, Joel. The Me Me Me Generation. Time.com. May 20, 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.