Comparing The Destructors And The Rocking Horse Winner

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story by the English novelist, essayist and literary critic D.H. Lawrence. It represents how the author cautions about the negative effects of materialism, as it can never fully satisfy the human need and will eventually end in tragedy and unhappiness. Lawrence does so through the archetypes of the terrible mother, the hero, and the anti-wise old man.

One of the emotional essentials of life is to be loved, and there are quite a few cases where material things can hinder receiving this much-needed love, the greatest culprit of all being money. D. H. Lawrence’s short story “The Rocking Horse Winner” tells of a boy, Paul, who desires love and affection from his mother, Hester, but she is so wrapped up in her concerns with money that she does not display any of this needed affection toward her son or any of her children. She has grown unloving and bitter due to her husband’s inability to meet her expectations, and she tells Paul his father is unlucky. Full of curiosity, Paul asks his mother what luck is, and she tells him, “‘It’s what causes you to have money. If you’re lucky you have money. That’s why it’s better to be born lucky than rich. If you’re rich, you may lose your money. But if you’re lucky, you will always get more money” (Lawrence, 2). Paul is quite intuitive and interprets that the only way he can finally obtain love from his mother is if he is lucky, much unlike his father. He proudly shares with his mother that he is lucky, but when she does not take his word seriously, he falls into a blinded rage as he madly rides his rocking horse, hoping it will take him to where the luck is, “‘Now take me to where there is luck!’” (3). By riding his rocking-horse, he knows which horse will win the derby. The association of love with money brings about the idea of a love for money, or greed, which is one of the seven

Throughout the years, people think they have gained happiness from their materialistic things. In this story, Ray Bradbury creates a family that is particularly wealthy through material possessions and how they become dispersed through the possessions they own. However, in Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Veldt” he emphasizes that utilizing materialistic things can actually result in terrible harm. Through the use of symbolism, irony, and foreshadowing, Ray Bradbury establishes the idea that overindulging in materialistic possessions can result in grave consequences.

In "The Rocking Horse Winner" D. H. Lawrence tells us about the traumatic downfall of an upper middle class family struggling to maintain appearances through habitual overspending. Both the parents with common jobs and "expensive tastes" (pg.646) exploit all their resources to give their family the best; however, it was only to retain their high status in the society. "The Rocking Horse Winner" depicts a common demon we all face; greed, society's need for more possessions and money often drives people to do drastic things.<p>The magnificently decorated house had always been haunted by the unspoken phrase, "there must be more money" (pg.646). "Nobody said it aloud. Just as no one says: We are

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

In both stories, “The Destructors” by Graham Greene, and “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, the authors relate to every day, real life situations that we think we can't deal with. We have to remind ourselves that this walk in life will not always be easy, but going through situations, some good and not so good, with a positive attitude allows us to finish as true champions. In the two short stories, the setting of the story plays a vital role by acting as the foundation. In fact, the setting of a story gives us as readers the chance to read at our pace while trying to get the true meaning of the story.  In my essay, I will present the writer’s intentions of both stories by comparing and contrasting the setting of both stories.

In the detailed story of an impoverished family during the late 1900’s, Jeannette Walls describes her experience from the young age of 3, up until adulthood. The family of 6, with Rex Walls as the father, Rose Mary as the mother, and her three siblings, Lori, Brian and Maureen, were constantly moving throughout the country with little to no food or cash. The memoir shows how dysfunctional the family was, but never seemed to force the reader to condemn the parents. In a life of poverty, the have to move for own to town, and often lived in various mining towns. Although they each found something they learned to love (like Jeannette’s rock collection) in the desert, they had to leave them behind once Rex’s alcoholism only worsened, and they ran

If Tyler Durden from Fight Club was sitting inside $340,000 Lamborghini Aventador, his hatred towards materialism probably would have driven him to accelerate the car right into the ocean. If James Twitchell was sitting inside of it, he probably would have just left the car in a parking structure with the keys still inside. Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club and James Twitchell’s essay “The Allure of Luxury”both take negative against the concept and phenomenon of Western materialism, where society indulge on luxurious items to the extent of being the focus of life. In Fight Club, the idea of anti-materialism is taken to a great extent, with the book’s main character and Tyler focusing on destroying the materialistic society with violence to restore a more primitive way of living. However, in Twitchell’s piece, materialism is taken more moderately, describing how materialism has rapidly expanded throughout the Western nations, questioning the if it is beneficial or malicious. I believe that materialism does provide great benefits that allowed us human beings to advance as a society. However materialism introduces numerous complications that impact our society on a macroscale. Before comparing and contrasting my view of materialism, we will first explore Twitchell’s essay, then Fight Club to first better understand their stance and concept of materialism.

“The author's work is known for its explorations of human nature and illustrates the nature of materialism” (Jones). Throughout life, we are constantly developing who we are as people. As we grow, we grasp hold of things we wish to portray ourselves with. In doing so, we create ourselves as humans. In this philosophy that has been developed, we base how we are raised in order to develop who we become in the long run. Over time, we receive knowledge pertaining to who we wish to become. In the story story “The Rocking Horse Winner” written by D. H. Lawrence, we are taken to a questionable development of humans in an equally disturbing adventure. In this short story, there are many messages that can be traced throughout.

Money plays a huge part in this story. Hester, the mother, is obsessed with having more and more money. She lives the life of a woman with money, never allowing anyone to see past the family's small income, "The mother had a small income, and the father had a

(BS-3) There were multiple contrasting characters that did not follow the same path as the others. (BS-2) Losing emotions and priorities are the two main effects of materialism. (BS-1) The characters described by the author are shown to be full of materialistic personalities. (R) A message from this book is that people should stop focusing on looks and objects and start interacting with people to receive true

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

In relation to wealth, the upper class is surrounded by admirable treasures that deceive lower society into assuming they are happy. Seen in present-day celebrities, “The Great Gatsby”, and “Lottery Ticket”, wealth did not bring happiness, but rather sorrow and isolation.

In “The Rocking Horse Winner”, a story in which shows the devastating effects of materialism, D.H. Lawrence uses symbolism to develop the message that love and happiness can be destroyed by money. Lawrence uses the character of Paul’s mom as a symbol of greed to show the effects of materialism. The reason for the symbolism is mainly to show that children require love and compassion. Paul’s rocking horse and the whispering of the house represent his undeniable need for love.

“Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu is a short story detailing how a boy’s shame coupled with a longing for normalcy created hostility towards his mother. This resentment in turn severed the connection between mother and son as well as the connection between a boy and his heritage. Liu uses narration in his piece to offer readers a glimpse into the mind of Jack, a young boy who, like most children, wants nothing more than to fit in. Liu narrates brief but intense snap shots of his experiences and the emotions that proceeded them. He describes Mark, a popular boy in his grade who makes fun of his origami toys and sneers at his mother’s background. We are also told of the neighbor women whom Jack overheard as a child, criticizing the fact that he is biracial and gossiping about his