'll offer a rough analogy - I went to a quite posh school on a scholarship, and by the time I turned seventeen, a lot of my friends already had cars. My parents, meanwhile, couldn't afford to pay for driving lessons. The childish part of me thought that if my Dad had given up smoking, he could have paid for driving lessons for me; while actually I knew that it wouldn't have been fair or reasonable to expect this. But if my brother had gotten a car, or driving lessons, while I were still told I couldn't have them, then the whole thing would have seemed a lot more unfair to me. Does that make sense?
Well, unless you and your brother are twins, you would have reached the age of driving lessons/cars at different times. It is entirely possible - as happened in my family - that at the time one child was old enough for driving lessons, the parents could afford to pay for them: and two or three years later, the family income might be substantially reduced, and the parents couldn't afford to pay for driving lessons for the next child.
Now, a child would argue "That's not fair!" but an adult who just happened to be only just old enough to drive would recognise that, well, life isn't fair.
In a large family like the Marlows, it's simply not possible to give all the children lavish presents at the same time. They can't all have new party outfits at the same time. They can't all have horses at the same time. You seem to feel that if all can't none should: but as Elizabeth Bennet said (one child in another large family): "And to be kept back on such a motive! I think it would not be very likely to promote sisterly affection or delicacy of mind."
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Well, unless you and your brother are twins, you would have reached the age of driving lessons/cars at different times. It is entirely possible - as happened in my family - that at the time one child was old enough for driving lessons, the parents could afford to pay for them: and two or three years later, the family income might be substantially reduced, and the parents couldn't afford to pay for driving lessons for the next child.
Now, a child would argue "That's not fair!" but an adult who just happened to be only just old enough to drive would recognise that, well, life isn't fair.
In a large family like the Marlows, it's simply not possible to give all the children lavish presents at the same time. They can't all have new party outfits at the same time. They can't all have horses at the same time. You seem to feel that if all can't none should: but as Elizabeth Bennet said (one child in another large family): "And to be kept back on such a motive! I think it would not be very likely to promote sisterly affection or delicacy of mind."