The Rocking Horse Essay

“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.

In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, by David Herbert Lawrence, there is this family, as the family wants to keep their economic status, the mom want’s to have money all the time. The Mom has a mental mindset of the family being rich, as she believes that she has money, but in reality, the family is not rich and they have no money as they are in debt. The mom is unhappy as the parent's marriage is unsatisfactory, the mom thought she was lucky before she got married to her husband, so she thinks that her husband gave her bad luck. Both parents have no luck. The mom does not like her own children. The mom tells his son Paul, that she and Dad have no luck. This short story has many secrets that various of the characters keep from one another. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, the theme is a Moral Obligation as Hester the mom does not like her kids and only her and the kids know, Paul keeps from his mom that him, uncle Oscar, and Bassett have been betting on horse races and that the “Rocking-Horse” gives Paul luck.

The mother being a local beauty was raised in a fishermen family. She believed everything should be spotless and in order, the way her brothers ran their ships. She was a typical fishermen house wife; she grew beautiful gardens and raised broods of ducks and hens and would go digging in the mud for clams. At one point she might have loved her husband but it was quite evident that she despised him and his books. There were moments when they clashed fiercely with each other and she was disgusted with his inability to retain his children in the fishermen lifestyle. The mother was very ignorant and closed-minded towards other traditions. This is proven when the daughters marry men from different lifestyles and the mother wants nothing to do with them. She believes that they are lazy, dishonest, and the unknown in which she

Conflict was used effectively in the short story to reveal the theme of the story. The boy has an internal conflict about which parent to stay with, and because his father left, he seemed to have favored him. He wanted him back so badly that every night, he watches him on the six o’clock news while wearing his old jackets. He was blinded by his father’s sudden departure that he forgot about what is really important. Additionally, another development in the short story’s conflict has been used effectively to reveal the theme. When the boy went to Macdonald’s to see his father’s true colors, he thought: “I finished my drink quickly, thankful that he had to be back in the studio for the news.” By the time he saw his dad for the first time in a while, he knew he was not the man he thought he was. At that moment, he also realized that he lost sight of what he had all this time: His mother’s unconditional love. If it wasn’t for the characterization of

Story A story is not like a novel; it can be a true story because this can happen in everyone’s life. The family love is one lesson for every single family. In every family, there should be a strong connection between parents and children, especially fathers should give time for their children. love of a family, the waylesson that fathers parents teachshould teach for their children about life is also another lesson from this story. Fathers know more about life because they will pass many challenges when they were teenagers, so fathers must tell to their children about life challenges.,, and the struggle that children make to succeed their dreams are the parts of the story that the author tried to transfer for the audiences. Children should work hard to fulfill their dreams and to have a better life and job. Scott explains his idea clearly for his audience. Develop each supporting body paragraph point in one sentence each to develop this conclusion. Also, endeavor to end on a resounding, powerful final

In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” we are introduced to a woman who author D.H Lawrence states, “was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them.” When I dive into the psychology behind that statement, I come up with a thought that this beginning draws similarities to Lawrence’s own upbringing with his coal miner father and schoolteacher mother. Similarly the mother in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is disenchanted with her marriage and the way her life

Hester tells Paul that luck is “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 money. But if you’re lucky, you will always have money.” (236) This pushes Paul to desperately seek out luck so that his mother will be grateful for her life and provide her family with the love and affection that they so rightfully deserve. Paul believes his rocking horse is full of magical powers, which will help him achieve the luck he needs to gain his mother’s love. While Paul rides his rocking horse, the horse predicts the winning horse and ends up making Paul an appalling amount of money. Paul gives his winnings to his mother who squanders it on unnecessary materialistic things. He realizes that he must win more money to win his mother’s affections. He becomes mad and frantically searches for the next winner of the horse races. On Paul’s last ride to find the last winner of the horse race, he falls of the horse and eventually dies.

The author depicts a common demon the human race faces that is greed and society's need for more possessions and money. This is projected throughout the story showing that Paul's family enjoyed living in style yet always lived beyond their means. There is never enough money, causing a great deal of anxiety in the house (Lawrence 221). The family believes that they are

When a person is lucky, it does not have to mean that they are fortunate with money. Luck is the chance for things to go the way you want them to go with out having any control over the situation. In The Rocking Horse Winner, Hester, the mother seems to believe that luck is strictly having money, and when there is no money, there is no luck. Hester's idea of luck meaning money brings forth the two ideas of greed and death throughout the story.

The house’s efficiency and helpfulness seem to make it cold and emotionless and the fact that it lives on after its inhabitants have passed just proves how the house is only a machine that is unable to love, this house will always be a house but it will never be a home.

Obsessed with her “unluckiness,” she neglects her children who are constantly exposed to the cold, emptiness of their mother’s heart. She is unable to love anything but the money she cannot attain. Her oldest child, Paul, forced to deal with this bitter treatment the longest, becomes obsessed with money as well, but as an attempt to win the interest of his mother. “Absorbed, taking no heed of other people, he went about with a sort of stealth, seeking inwardly for luck” (Lawrence 483). He rides into a trance on his rocking horse until he is killed by this urgency to find a winner. He wants to be “lucky” so badly. He wants to be the best, something his mother and father believed they could never be. He needs the money so that his house will stop screaming and his mother will love him.

He was not ready to take this position, but he had no choice. This is what started Richard's early maturation into a man. Richard says he is “lost in a fog of fear,” revealing that his forced maturation is controlling his mental state and is unhealthy. He is too young to be handling the problems of his family and their complications. Richard then sees his poor mother suffering, and he realizes that he must change. Richard “knew he was a child, but could no longer feel as a child” which shows Richard feeling his maturation into a man. His “desire for play was gone,” showing he does not want to be a child if it means being helpless. Richard wants to be a child, wants to act like one, and wants to have no worries at all, but this is a luxury he cannot afford. Instead, Richard must force himself to care for his mother on his own and grow up mentally, although he is still a child physically. The loss of adult figures in Richard’s life torments his mind into thinking he needs to take charge when there could be alternative

Certain individuals have a drive that can lead them to achieve what they desire most. In the Short story “The Rocking Horse Winner”, D.H Lawrence showcases this through character motivation and symbolism. He further this using pursuit of desire, and how if you take it to a certain extent it can result in tragedy if the individual chooses not to conform. Paul wants to please his mother because his mother feels that there family has no luck, but Paul proclaims that he is lucky. Paul suddenly becomes consumed with this sudden spree of good luck and feels this is the only way he will be able to gain to the affection of his mother. D.H Lawrence reveals that Paul has a certain flaw that turns him to believe that the only way he will be able to gain his mothers love and affection is by winning money in the horse races. He leads this pursuit of desire to the standards he thought he wanted to, but not to the standards that would have achieved what he wanted, which leads to his down fall. When individuals desire love from another, they may choose to conform their beliefs and actions to that person. At first they may feel successful, however if they sacrifice everything, in pursuing this kind of goal, they may pay a heavy price instead of gaining there hearts desire.

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.

“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.