Greed in The Rocking Horse Winner
People need money to live, and enough to buy the basic goods one needs to survive, but everybody wants more money. More money means an easier life. The more money one has, the more money one wants, as is shown in the story, "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence.
At the beginning of this story the family did not have enough money to support their opulent lifestyle. Mr. Lawrence illustrates their situation like this: "Although they lived in style they felt always an anxiety in the house. There was never enough money." (p. 159) The family scrambles to pay the bills at the end of the month. An unspoken phrase "Whispered" throughout the house, "There must be more money! There must be more money!" (p.160) the whispering said. Even though the family had money, they wanted, they needed, more.
Paul, the child, knew that his family wanted money, and he knew that he was lucky, betting on the horses. Paul became partners with the gardener. He picked the horse, and the gardener placed the bet. Paul had started out with five shillings but his winnings kept adding up. When he had made 10,000 pounds he decided to give his mother 1000 pounds a year for five years. He wanted his winnings to be a secret so a lawyer handled the money. Paul saw the envelope from the lawyer and asked his mother if she had received anything good in the mail. She said "Quite moderately nice" (p. 168) in a cold voice. She liked getting the money, but she wasn't happy. She wanted more.
The same day, she had a meeting with the lawyer who was handling the money. Paul's mother demanded the full sum. She received the money and spent it all. The author informs the reader, "There were certain new furnishings, and Paul had a tutor... There were flowers in the winter, and a blossoming of the luxury that Paul's mother had been used to." (p. 169) The money ran out and the voices in the house screamed, "Oh-h-h, there must be more money.
Are all mothers fit for motherhood? The concept of motherhood is scrutinized in the stories “The Rocking Horse Winner” and “Tears Idle Tears”. In “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H Lawrence the mother, Hester, unpremeditatedly provokes her son into providing for her through gambling. In the story “Tears Idle Tears” by Elizabeth Bowen, Mrs. Dickinson disregards her son’s emotions and puts more emphasis in her appearance than her son’s wellbeing. Hester and Mrs. Dickinson both were inadequate mothers. Both the mothers were materialistic, pretended to love their offspring, and their dominance hindered their children’s progress in life.
Once he learns that luck brings money, the very component his mother yearns for, he goes on a mission with his trusty steed. He becomes violent hitting his wooden rocking horse with a whip and commands it, "'Now, take me to where there is luck! Now take me!'" (Lawerence 412). His obsession causes him to act out of character because the one items he cherishes has to endure the displaced frustration he has toward Hester. This shows how much he wants his mother to acknowledge his existence in her life. His goal in finding luck is to also find money in anticipation that Hester's search will cease forcing all of her attention on him. Paul not only loses his temperament but his childhood as well. He becomes preoccupied with gambling when it should be superheroes and sports. He rocks on his horse compulsively until he falls ill screaming out the winning horse's name: "'Malabar! It's Malabar!'" (Lawerence 412). As his prediction comes true, Hester collects the prize money, and Paul believes he has obtained the unobtainable. He hunts for her acceptance one last time asking, "'Over eighty thousand pounds! I call that lucky, don't you mother?'" (Lawerence 422). Hester replies, "'No, you never did'" (422), and he dies later that night without ever knowing his worth. She is unable to give him his dying wish of her
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When Paul’s boss asked him to deposit money for him, Paul took advantage of this opportunity. Instead of depositing all the money, Paul only deposited the chec...
In ‘Paul’s Case’ Paul has created a fantasy world in which he becomes entranced, even to the point of lying to classmates about the tales of grandeur and close friendships that he had made with the members of the stock company. This fantasy falls apart around him as “the principle went to Paul’s father, and Paul was taken out of school and put to work. The manager at Carnegie Hall was told to get another usher in his stead; the doorkeeper at the theater was warned not to admit him to the house” (Cather 8). The fantasy fell apart further when the stories he had told his classmates reached the ears of the women of the stock company, who unlike their lavish descriptions from Paul were actually hardworking women supporting their families. Unable to cope with the reality of working for Denny & Carson, he stole the money he was supposed to deposit in the bank to live the life of luxury in New York. Only a person who felt backed into a corner would attempt something so unsound. After his eight days in paradise, he is again backed into a corner by the reality of his middle class upbringing, and the dwindling time he has before his father reaches New York to find him. The final way out for Paul is his suicide, for which an explanation would be “In the end, he fails to find his security, for it was his grandiose “picture making mechanism” that made his life so deardful.” (Saari). With all the securities of his fantasy life finally gone, his mental instability fully comes to light as he jumps in front of the train to end his
"A sum of money is a leading character in this tale about people, just as a sum of honey might properly be a leading character in a tale about bees." (p.7)
Mama and her family were about to receive a check for $10,000 from the deceased Mr. Younger’s insurance policy. This money seemed like the answer to the family’s’ prayers. Everyone seemed to have big dreams for the money. Mama wanted to buy a house, Walter wanted to invest the money into a liquor store, and Beneatha wanted to use the money for her medical school tuition. Ruth agreed with Mama’s ideal of buying a house and she thought that the house would provide more space and opportunity for her son.
These new hybrid bears are a good way for the polar bears to be around for many years to come. It allows to live long because they have two different genes in them and it also allows them to survive anywhere in the world because their fur is mixed. They have brown fur that allows them to be on land for a long amount of time and they have white fur which allows them to live in the snow and let them stay in freezing water for a long amount of time.
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The mother who was receiving the check for her laid husband was against her son Walter’s decision for owning a liquor store. Walter truly showed his desperation for success by saying, “I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy…Mama – look at me”. (1.2.222), by him pitching his business plan to his mom shows how desperate a man who has little to nothing to call his own can be. Because his mom has faith in his decision to invest his money she decided to go ahead and let him have it. His risky decision to invest his money in his business lost not only all of the money for himself his mother had given him, but he also lost the money that was supposed to be saved for his sisters college tuition. I was able to relate to this point in the story because I have made the same mistake before with my financial aid money. Although the loss of losing something so dear to you can be hard to overcome mentally, those who recover always come out
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Since the beginning of time, man has had an issue with greed. Adam and Eve, who had more than enough to eat, just had to have the “forbidden fruit”. According to Merriam-Webster, greed is defined as, “a selfish desire to have more of something (especially money) than needed”. It is very obvious that time after time, throughout history, greed has not only been problematic, but has essentially been the undoing of one society after the next and caused death, chaos and utter ruin, epitomized by the Tolstoy short story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?’ and the Lawrence short story, “The Rocking Horse Winner”.
...bag of money and put it in the king’s hands…“Take this six thousand dollars, and invest it…any way you want” (222). She has already placed all of her trust in the king even though she has no confirmation that he is in fact her uncle. They are completely unsuspecting of the fact that the duke and the king are attempting to steal their money.
The author shows that money can change a characters behavior. You see this behavioral change in Claire by the way she dresses and acts as she is above everyone. In the beginning
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