They argue about who took care of Tipper when she was ill, suggesting that their respective convalescent care has helped them earn a larger share of the inheritance. It comes as no surprise, then, that after Tipper’s death, the sisters spend most of the following summer arguing about money and possessions. Growing up in an atmosphere of extreme wealth and privilege, Tipper’s daughters never learn the value of charity or generosity, and instead focus on their own needs and wants. While their mother had been involved in many different charities in her lifetime, the Sinclair daughters have no such interest in using the family money for charitable causes, and are only concerned about using their inheritance to maintain their lifestyles. Clearly this family has wrapped up its sense of value with material possessions, further setting the stage for the sisters’ bickering over their inheritance. They have houses built especially for each one of them but often bicker about whose house is due for renovations, seeing the state of their summer homes as a symbol of their father’s love for them. Penny, Carrie, and Bess also spend their summers on Beechwood Island, the island their father owns near Martha’s Vineyard. None evidence a particularly strong work ethic, which connects their wealth to a sense of entitled laziness. Carrie ran a jewelry boutique until it failed, Bess was a divorced stay-at-home-mom, and Penny ran a dog-breeding business that hardly brought in any income at all. This wealth is evidenced not only by the Sinclair sisters’ top-quality educations, but also by the fact that none of them has a real job or provides for herself they are all, in one way or another, living off of their father’s trust fund. Lockhart quickly establishes the Sinclair clan as an upper-class family highly concerned with wealth and privilege.
Through the stories that Cady uncovers in her investigation, the novel ultimately demonstrates the destructive power of greed and the ways in which extreme wealth can tear a family apart.
When Cady Eastman, the eldest Sinclair grandchild, suffers an accident that leaves her with significant memory loss, her investigation into the accident further reveals the ways in which wealth can destroy family ties. Such greed dominates their lives, as the sisters spend most of their time drinking and fighting with one another. The Sinclair sisters- Penny, Carrie, and Bess, all of whom stand to inherit a lot of money from their father, Harris-become greedy and jealous of one another after their mother, Tipper Taft, dies, and they begin to split up her prized possessions. Lockhart’s novel We Were Liars documents the wealthy Sinclair family’s fall from grace.
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