Comparing 'The Lesson And Rocking Horse Winner'

Writing 2 : Paper 1

‘The Lesson’ and ‘rocking horse winner’

In the two texts being analyzed the main themes are social injustice and Materialism. Even though these themes are different they both deal with financial standing. This paper will be looking at two texts, ‘the lesson’ and ‘Rocking horse winner’ in order to generate a final conclusion as to why both of them relate to one another.‘Rocking horse winner’ is a short story about a Materialistic mother that eventually causes her sons death, in his attempt to win his mothers love. The texts closes in on a well off middle class family. An overly materialistic mother who neglected her children's need for love and a father who's ‘prospects never materialized’. Placed in this situation the children noticed that the mother had a personal problem and cared more for money than she did for them. Paul the son, is determined to win his mothers love.

Paul road his rocking horse and entered a parallel world in witch he could see which horse would win. Paul and his family ‘lived in style’, even though his family could bearily afford it. While Paul's families living ‘style was kept up’, him and his siblings felt a presence

of anxiety in the house they lived in. The house whispered to them ‘there must be more money’. Paul was constantly pestered by the voice and soon after gets introduced to gambling, and decides to secretly bet on horses with is uncle.

As the presents of the anxious whispering grew louder, the household seemed to grow largely nervous too. Especially the mother Hester, and Paul her son. Finally Pule bet on a horse and ends up winning the bet. In his winning, Paul earns his family a hefty sum of money, but ends up ‘falling of his rocking horse’ and soon after dies. Paul longed for his mothers love, attention, but in quest for her love, he passes.

‘The Lesson’ brings up issues of social inequality and the gap between classes. Silvia the narrator of the story is a young girl living in what is known as New York’s poorer side, Harlem. Silvia is the character that seems to know it all and therefor dislikes Miss Moor the African American educated lady who sometimes acts as a mentor type teacher for the children.

Miss Moor Plans for the children to go on a trip to ‘Schwarz Toy’ store in fifth avenue New York. Fifth avenue is one of New York's more upper class locations. For the six children from Harlem, Fifth Avenue will be a brand new experience. The children are exposed to a new place they have never been before. Masses of toys, games and other products are presented to the children that surpass their financial standing. Miss Moor wanted to take the Children on this trip to show them that there is more to the world than the slums. Also she wants them to notice the issue of unequal wealth distribution around them.

In the text the money aspect comes into play when Miss more hands Silvia a five dollar bill to pay the cab driver for their ride. She is to tip the cab driver, and return the rest of the money to Miss Moor. Silvia decides to give the driver 85cents and pockets the rest, she tells herself, she needs it more than he does. When the children arrive at the toy store it does not take them long to realize the huge difference between the classes. The six children begin feeling uncomfortable and out of place. A single glance through the window of the toy store and the children are amazed by the stores offerings. As they go in and interact with the store they realize the prices and each child almost has an epiphany of what the reality of their lives are. Also they realize how drastically different life can be for other people .

Each Essay deals with an economic situation which allow for the texts to relate to one another.
A middle class family who felt, ‘there was never enough money’ and a lower income group of children that are faced with an eye opening look into societies uneven wealth distribution.

In these two instances there is a correlation. Money! In essay, ‘The Lesson’, the children looked at prices in the toy store and realized, they cannot afford anything. One of the children even starts to think of other things he could do with the price of one of the toys. ‘thirty-five dollars and the whole household could go visit Granddaddy.., thirty-five dollars would pay for the rent..’. Another example where money coincides in the texts is when Paul asks his mother ‘ is money luck’. Both these instances are similar. They deal each deal with an idea of children coming to understand what money is and what it can

do.

Through out each text there are many ideas about the meaning of money. Each essay allows for an insight into different worlds and each worlds value for money. In the ‘Rocking horse winner’ Paul’s value for money is his mothers love. When he went to the races with his uncle he had said, ‘I started it for mother’, Referring to the money he had won on the bet. Whereas in ‘The Lesson’ the children's value for money is not so apparent because they do not have much of it. Though the children are still noticing that there is a social and economical injustice in the world around them, through the big differences in fifth avenue and Harlem. ‘we can go to Hascombs and get half a chocolate layer and then go to the sunset and have plenty money for potato chips and…’

Even though the texts look at totally different classes of people, the correlation is apparent. Both parties regardless of financial standing, have money presented as an obstacle. In each of the essays, financial dilemmas occur, money for love or not enough money for toys. The text uses the innocence of children to express serous topics, greed, materialism and social inequality.