A Critical Analysis of "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and "The Destructors"

All these characters had different personalities and each character was lovable in their own way.

Graham Greene’s “The Destructor’s”, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Rocking Horse Winner” (Both stories reprinted in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 9th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth] 111-124, 285-298) are two short stories set in post-war England. Despite the similarities of both stories set in post-war eras of Great Britain, the mood and physical settings are vastly different. In fact, the stories each give differing amounts of details and clues about the setting. For instance, “The Destructors” setting is easily discernable, but in contrast, “The Rocking Horse Winner” gives only vague clues regarding the time and setting. Regardless of the differences in the amount of details given, the

The love of wealth plagued man from the beginning of time and continues to today. Since the twentieth century in particular, materialism became increasingly common and cast in a positive light. Graham Greene and D.H. Lawrence, who were authors in this time period, addressed this tendency in their short stories. In “The Destructors” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” both authors utilize young boys from materialistic and prideful families to show the destructiveness of materialism, even for the seemingly innocent.

Comparison and Contrast of “The Destructors”, by Graham Greene and “The Rocking Horse Winner”, by D.H. Lawrence

I guess what all these characters have in common is that they were all real and sincere and that you could find these traits and stories in everyday people.

In the The Lottery, Jackson told the story from the point of view of a third person narration; whereas, in the The Rocking-Horse Winner, Lawrence narration is written and seen by several characters within the story. Both authors use social elements to bring the stories together with varies symbolic words that outline the conditions within each siting and the element of an individual death, which involves both characters in a conflict between one’s own passion and one’s responsibility. Both stories have the reader asking the question “what was purpose? To respond, the reader must understand the points of view and minds of each character. For example, one story focuses more on traditional and casual bloodshed; and the other story is more on

Both stories “ The Destructors” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” were written by British authors, and set in England. “The Rocking Horse Winner” was set after WWI, meanwhile “The Destructors” was set after WWII. In this case, this shows us that both stories have similar living conditions. On the other hand, there are also differences in the two stories. Graham Greene’s “The Destructors” and D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner” have similar yet different uses of setting, greediness, emotions and themes of character.

Destruction of Innocence in "The Destructors" and "The Rocking Horse Winner" The story written by D. H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner, opens on a negative tone describing a woman named Hester “who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck” (Lawrence, D. H., 1933/2013, p. 235). Likewise, Trevor, of Graham Greene’s “The Destructors”, is a young man who once enjoyed the beautiful things in life and now desires only to destroy those beautiful things. Hester and Trevor’s social status causes them both to misdirect their focus on what is important in life. The stories both appear to be set after a major war where the aftermath and economic struggles are visible and experienced. Hester and Trevor did not focus on God’s word where he said “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

The theme of “The Destructors” is the difference between classes in post-World War II London. The characters in “The Destructors” are twelve gang members who destroy a beautiful old house. The house represents the upper class society that was still present in this setting. One

might still accept the money he gave them. When he reached sixteen years of age he entered a

D. H. Lawrence also shows conflict between Paul and his mother through a second level of secrecy. He writes the story using the style of story telling or a fantasy style of writing. "The Rocking-Horse Winner" starts off with "there was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust" (Lawrence 524). According to Junkins "mother is the poor, unsatisfied fairy princess who yearns for happiness; Paul is the gallant knight on horseback who rides to her rescue" (88). Lawrence uses this form of story telling to show the reader the conflict Paul has when trying to win his mother's love by giving her riches.

A sudden storm of footsteps, then Paul’s bedroom door swung open. His father and Basset stood in the doorway and looked at his mother with alerting eyes. She pointed to the vigorously rocking rocking horse. They gandered at the horse and it spoke again in a cryptic

Because of Hester’s kindness to others, soon people refused to interpret the “A” on her chest for adultery,

“The Rocking Horse Winner” is a short story written by D.H Lawrence that follows the short and tragic life of a boy named Paul, who assumes he has amazing luck after realizing he can predict racehorse winners by furiously riding his rocking horse until he reaches a trance-like state. Unfortunately, as his family takes advantage of his gift and starts gaining more money, Paul’s luck begins to kill him. Literally. Throughout the story, there are several themes evident, such as wealth, life, conscious, existence; luck, family, and greed. The conflicts displayed are man vs man, man vs self, and man vs. society. The rocking horse has become an obsession for paul and the potential benefits it would have on his family, ultimately not knowing the actual harm it will cause.

When Paul’s mother tells him that luck is needed to have money, Paul asserts that he is lucky. However, “[Paul] saw that she did not believe him; or rather, that she paid no attention to his assertion. This angered him somewhere, and made him want to compel her attention” (Lawerence 2). Paul’s mom had never been loving to her children. She had bought them luxury gifts to maintain their appearance, but she never gave them her endearment. Paul, as a young boy, wants the affection of his mother and is willing to do whatever he can to get it. He thinks that if he can show his mother that he has luck, she will finally love him. His high desire for his mother’s love shows that Paul has an oedipus complex, which is when a “. . . child desperately wants mother’s approval and love, child engages in highly secretive behavior involving frenetic, rhythmic activity that culminates in transporting loss of consciousness” (Foster 149). Part of Paul’s luck is riding the rocking horse, which becomes his secret as he becomes older and his family starts deeming it as weird that he still rides a child’s rocking horse. Also, while riding the rocking horse, Paul has a loss of consciousness as his eyes make him a new person as he rides