D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story about the bond between a boy and his rocking horse. The young boy Paul has a rocking horse that he is growing out of, but still saddles up anyway. He was born into a greedy family and has two younger sisters. In this story, Paul is taught the way his family values money, the luck that runs through his blood, as well as how gambling changes people.
Paul’s mother is told that “she is such a good mother. She adores her children.” (Lawrence, 2001) However, the children and their mother know in their hearts that’s not true. The mother values money over her family. The love that was once in her heart has “turned to dust” (Lawrence, 2001). She doesn’t care much for her children and they are not on her list of priorities. She married for love, not luck; however she feels that she cannot love her children. The story gives an impression that the mother regrets getting married and having children because she states that she was once lucky. She implies that she was once lucky and could afford the expensive material things, but now she...
...promising dreams, relationships often fall apart under strain from unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, imprisonment, conflict and betrayal. Finally, we get to the heart of what marriage means to these mothers and why they say that successfully raising children is the most important job they will ever have. Almost all of the women said things like “It’s only because my children that I am where I am today.”
“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story about a young boy, Paul, who has the supernatural ability to choose a winning race horse. It is not clear how the boy has this ability but he hears his mother’s voice echo in his mind saying that they are poor and so he sets out to change that. Paul takes on the stress of his mother’s greed. This short story relates to the obsession of wealth which what motivates the characters aside of neglect, faulty sense of value, opportunism and deceit. Paul believes that there is more money to be made and thus goes on a frenzy to win more, but consequently dies after falling off his rocking horse due to convulsions of a fever.
Luck and love have always been two very important and contradicting themes in many stories. Children and adults would go above and beyond to receive their parent’s affection and approval even to the point of death and isolation. At times this creates a dysfunctional aspect in the family’s lives. “A Rose for Emily” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” have very similar symbol meanings and themes explaining the dysfunctional family, love and luck.
One day Andrew made a bet with a Rival horse breeder named Mr.Dickinson. The bet was that the Andrews horse Mustang was a faster horse than dickinson's fastest horse that he bred. Mr.Dickinson claimed that his fastest horse Sparky can beat mustang therefore the bet was made. One hot summer day Andrew, his wife, Dickinson, and his wife went to the track. Andrew was in the stable preparing Mustang for the
...e. Psychoanalytically speaking, Paul was depressed and it only worsened through his lies and physical aversion. This anxiety had closed in on him and caused him to feel even more alone. "What he wanted was to see, to be in the atmosphere, float on the wave of it, to be carried out, blue league after blue league, away from everything" (75). He was never able to distinguish from wrong and right; he lacked that guidance from his mother's tone of voice. He took his life because he figured that being out of the world was better than being in it. Paul still had a lot to learn, and yet more to overcome from his loneliness. Could his mother have been able to cure this if she were present?
The short story, "Rocking-Horse Winner", and the movie based on it contrast considerably. When the written story has ended the movie continues with ideas, which may not come from the author. Three major differences of the two are: the mother, the father, and the ending. In the movie the mother, Hester, is portrayed as a loving and self-sacrificing person. While in the short story she is exposed to be a cold-hearted, and greedy person. Another instance where the short story and movie differ is the role of the father.
Her detachment goes far beyond her marriage and even affects her relationships with her children “Their absence was a sort of relief… It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her. ”(25). It is interesting how fate is used to explain her children and her marriage. It may not be fate that is responsible but society.
...aul had paid the price of losing out on his childhood in order to try and give his mother money. A child shouldn't have to miss out on his youth because of his mother's obsession with having more money. Paul's mother paid an even greater price, she lost her only son. Paul died from what seemed like exhaustion from riding his rocking-horse for too long. In the end, Hester found out why Paul was riding his rocking-horse and she must of felt horrible that her son had died trying to please her.
Yet, “when her children were present she always felt the center of heart go hard”. She knew “that there was a place in the center of her heart where she could not feel love for anybody, not even her children”. Later on in the story, the mother goes on to show her emotions and love when she has “seizures of uneasiness” about Paul and finds him fiercely riding his rocking horse into unconsciousness and finally plumaging to his death. When she is presented with losing her child, she realizes what she had, a little too late. (Lawrence p.980, 988)
The point of view of materialism in the Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence is the seen from inside the mind of child in the story, Paul. “He went off by himself, vaguely, in a childish way, seeking for the clue to “luck,” Absorbed, taking n...
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature: A Portable Anthology. Gardner, Janet E.; Lawn, Beverly; Ridl, Jack; Schakel, Pepter. 3rd Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. 242-249. Print.
Anxiety is not only felt, but it is also heard in this household. The house that they family live in and the all of the expensive items in it are a prime example of anxiety. Hester and the father, whose name is never given, both do not have high paying jobs to support the spending that they do. Hester and the father both spend tons of money to fit into the status quo of their neighborhood, even though they know they cannot afford it. Their expensive taste leads to the house whispering a phrase through out the whole story, “There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it out loud (Lawrence 101). “ All of the children could hear the whisper but none of them would speak about it to each other. The voices of the house created a lot of anxiety for Paul especially. The reader is not given too much information about the father; he is absent for duration of the story. Snodgrass analyzes how the father’s absence leaves a huge gap in the family that needs to be filled. He believes that the Paul was devoted to repl...
... becomes very disappointed that his mother hasn’t shown any affection. All the money he won never got Hester to show any affection to him and crushes Paul’s heart. The love of his mother is gone because of her selfishness and greed she revealed when her son was just trying to make her happy so he can receive affection.
According to D.H. Lawrence: a study of the short fiction Paul’s last words ““Mother did I ever tell you? I am lucky!” Are really a desperate, confused proclamation of his love” (4)? This demonstrates that even after all his mother has done he still loves her and cares about her. He sees more in his mother than her materialism, he knows that she still loves her family, even if she cannot control her need for more money. Unlike his mother Paul shows that he does not care about money by saying “oh, let her have it, then! We can get some more with the other,” (Lawrence 800). This proves how different both characters are and how not all people are materialistic even if they come from the same family. He is willing to give his mother all the money he has earned just to make her happy. This proves how important his mom is to him and how money is not important to him because he is willing to give up all the money he
“The Rocking Horse Winner” is a story that discusses a young boy, named Paul, and his family who feel they never have enough money. The family has insufficient funds, but when Paul provides the mother with money, she only desires further. This constant yearning causes the boy to feel the desperate and the interminable need to provide for his family. He in a sense almost hungers to replace his father and become the sole provider. Through trying to please his mother, the young boy Paul meets his demise. This tragic conclusion illustrates the lengths Paul will go in order to replace his father and become the provider for his mother. This story displays elements of an Oedipus complex, because of Paul’s desires to replace his father and the effects of insatiable greed, eventually resulting in his premature mortality.