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Essay on the rocking horse winner
How is materialism represented in the rocking horse winner
How is materialism represented in the rocking horse winner
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“The Rocking Horse Winner,” written over 8 decades ago by D.H Lawrence, is an intricate and complicated tale about the role wealth plays in one’s happiness. The relationship between the characters, especially between mother and the only son, is heavily affected by money, and its acquisition. Not only do misbeliefs of a grand lifestyle ruin the relationship at the apex of the story, but also so does the fixation. What is most outstanding, however, is the mother’s greed to have more and more money that it became the root of the death of one of her own children.
Very few things in a person’s life are as damaging as ignorance. We all suffer from ignorance. While we have all heard the saying "ignorance is bliss," we all regard it as mere words that have been used one too many times. The reality is ignorance is a very destructive aspect in our lives, and this has proven indeed factual in the psychological short story by D.H. Lawrence.
Mrs. Hester was good-looking, and she married for the right reasons - love. However, she was trapped in an ill-fated marriage life. This short detail is crucial in the short story because it brings forth the element of sexual subtext in Lawrence’s short story. Scholars have observed that the portrayals of Paul riding his rocking horse have an erotic quality, and such incidences have been understood as symbols of sex and masturbation. Subsequently these, quasi-sexual actions, are fixated on pleasing Paul's mother, and we see Paul's father proving incapable of satisfying the wife. From this, many critics presume that the story draws on the perceptions of psychologist Sigmund Freud. In the article by W.D Snodgrass “A Rocking-Horse: the Symbol, the Pattern, the Way to Live” Snodgrass claims, “The father withd...
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...he modern world, so does the word luck” (Junkins).
Although there are one or two passages in which Lawrence sacrifices the objectivity and tells us what goes on in Paul’s mind. These passages fail to occur at significant moments and end up unnoticed or have less impact on readers. “The Rocking-horse Winner” shows a face of human nature, which, if not controlled, things like desire and greed would never be satisfied and would only result to more desires. Capturing the obscurity in human nature and linking it to the reader is complex than it initially seems. This intricacy is what makes writing and understanding this short story a tough and yet satisfying process. Authors have the chance to utilize these precise literary devices to make each story their own. Knowing which appropriate method to use, or trickier, when to employ it, is what makes or breaks the story.
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.
Many years later, in desperation for a remedy to cure his tortured soul, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale takes to the scaffold where Hester had once suffered her shame. He is envious of the public nature of her ...
“Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Most children learn this proverb and immediately try to disprove it, or simply do not believe it. However, age allows one to see the truth in this phrase. In My Antonia, a novel by Willa Cather, the protagonist, Jim Burden, reflects on his childhood in the American frontier. Despite achieving wealth and an elevated social position, benefits most associate with attaining the American Dream, Jim Burden eventually realizes that true success, and happiness, is found in strong emotional connections.
Hester is a youthful, beautiful, proud woman who has committed an awful sin and a scandal that changes her life in a major way. She commits adultery with a man known as Arthur Dimmesdale, leader of the local Puritan church and Hester’s minister. The adultery committed results in a baby girl named Pearl. This child she clutches to her chest is the proof of her sin. This behavior is unacceptable. Hester is sent to prison and then punished. Hester is the only one who gets punished for this horrendous act, because no one knows who the man is that Hester has this scandalous affair with. Hester’s sin is confessed, and she lives with two constant reminders of that sin: the scarlet letter itself, and Pearl, the child conceived with Dimmesdale. Her punishment is that she must stand upon a scaffold receiving public humiliation for several hours each day, wearing the scarlet letter “A” on her chest, represe...
“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.
D.H. Lawrence’s writings often mirror elements of his own life, though they contain decidedly fictitious components. The characters in Lawrence’s The Rocking- Horse Winner closely resemble his own family. Like Paul, Lawrence was seeking a way out of the misfortune of pre-war London living. Unlike Lawrence, Paul is already well-to-do. Paul’s search consists of a yearning for affection and acceptance. In The Rocking-Horse Winner a young boy finds a certain calling within himself that serves to vastly improve the standing of his entire family. However, Paul’s supernatural ability to choose the winners of horse races is but a cursory assessment of the story’s secrets. Digging deeper, the reader becomes aware of a darker meaning to Paul’s wild rides. There are two things are revealed throughout Paul’s character development; first, that he is seeking his mother’s affection. Secondly, in doing so, there is an apparent autoeroticism linked to his seemingly innocent rocking-horse.
When reading “The Rocking Horse Winner,” you quickly notice the introduction sets a tone carried throughout the story. Sadly, you quickly notice that the tone of this story is rather depressing. Both of these stories share an interesting similarity; the generational curse. Paul claims that God had told him he was in fact lucky. Coisendenlly even though Paul makes this statement he continues to gamble on horses to make money. Gambling is a true sin, something Paul seems to ignore. The house in the story whispers throughout the day, this is the author’s means of portraying personification. Paul continues to rid...
The beginning of "The Rocking Horse Winner" gives the reader a sense of fantasy. It starts off with "There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck." Already the reader has a sense of timelessness, of an extraordinary, illusory reality. Lawrence continues on with this feeling when the narrator tells us of this beautiful woman and her feelings towards her children. "Only she herself knew that at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody." The narrator goes on to tell us the tale of a woman, unable to love her own children, who is obsessed with money. The house the family lived in was always filled with a whisper, "There must be more money!" This whisper is what leads to Paul becoming obsessed with money and luck like his mother. The dream-like tone that fills the story cont...
The story discusses a sin, which is adultery, and how viewing it differs from society and the sinner. Society views Hester's sin as shameful and disgraceful. Th...
Upon reading more closely, the story is revealed to present a tragic journey of a man who has lost his sanity but seeks solace in the materialistic comforts of his old life. The story succeeds in making a number of statements about human nature: that wealth is the most powerful measure of social status and anyone without it will face ostracization; that denial of one 's mistakes and unfortunate circumstances only leads to more pain; that even the most optimistic people can hold dark secrets and emotional turmoil inside them. All of these themes compel the reader to ponder their real-life implications long after the story is
Paul was outraged when he confronted his mother about the family’s lack of wealth, and she rejected his statement that he was lucky. After this scene, Paul was easily influenced that he would be able to reach this place of luck and finally satisfy his mother. Her desires for more money and luck are never satisfied, and as a result, lead to tragic consequences when love and money are confused in Paul’s mind. Paul’s heartbreaking attempt to win his mother’s love inevitably leads to his own death. Lawrence’s, The Rocking Horse Winner, exposes the negative qualities associated with modern society and specifically adults.
From dreams deferred to identity affirmed Lorraine Hansberry’s, “A Raisin in the Sun,” presents readers with many differing themes. The most prevalent and reoccurring theme is the effect money plays on society’s views of manhood and happiness. Readers are shown multiple characters with a diverse view on manhood. From Walter Lee with his matching societal views that a man should be able to provide whatever his family needs or wants to Lena whose views are a biased compilation of her late husband’s behavior and her own ideals, that a man should maintain his honor and protect his children’s dreams.
Not only does ignorance have a negative impact on people, it is also “the root and stem of all evil” (Plato), which can destroy a person. To start off, self-superiority can cloud a person’s judgment; making it evident that intelligence can easily be lost to arrogance. To add on, anger and the human tendency to make rash decisions can also contribute to ignorance, resulting in eventual downfall. Lastly, unconscious attempts to blind yourself from the truth can result in the committing of major sins. Tragedy occurs in “Oedipus the King” when ignorance causes disastrous events, proving that lack of knowledge can result in their misfortune.
Hester’s attitude is a rebellion against both puritan rules and puritan culture, and when she is bound to carry an “A” over her breast, she transforms the adultery in art. This transformation is carried out by means of the beauty of her needlework, but also through her daughter Pearl. In this story art is compared to beauty, the b...
Have you ever believed in a supernatural power or something that gives the ability to have an edge over others? In D.H Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner, there is a young boy named Paul that has the ability to be able to see the future somewhat and win bets for a rather sad reason. All the boy wants is for his mother to believe that he is lucky and for her show him love and affection. Sadly, Paul works very hard to attempt to prove to his mother that he is indeed lucky, and to prove to her that their family is not cursed with bad luck. Then sadly, the mother does not give Paul the appreciation he wants until it is far too late and her son dies of exhaustion, all just for his mother to see that he is lucky so she would show him affection. Three messages portrayed in this story are, family, wealth, and luck.