The Rocking Horse Winner, By D. H. Lawrence

In D.H. Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner, Paul is searching for an identity and love. Paul’s mother was incapable of love; “when her children were present, she always felt the centre of her heart go hard.” Paul’s mother desires materialistic possessions and excludes

In both “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the authors take critical aim at two staples of mainstream values, materialism and tradition respectively. Both authors approach these themes through several different literary devices such as personification and symbolism; however, it is the authors' use of characterization that most develop their themes. We'll be taking a look at the parallel passages in the stories that advance their themes particularly when those passages involve both of the authors' subtle character descriptions, and why this method of character development is so powerful in conveying the authors' messages.

Passions drive people, and the townspeople in “The Lottery” and Paul in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” are no different. Each of the members of the unnamed town has a strong passion for tradition. The original black box used for the lottery is described as being, “lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born” (Jackson 251). This sentence gives the reader an understanding that the lottery is an ancient tradition that has become an integral part of the town’s lifestyle. Such a tradition can only be carried on for this length of time if the people are passionate about preserving the tradition. Paul had a passion to be wealthy as a way to prove to his mother that he was lucky. From a young age, he saw that his family always wanted more money to support a better lifestyle, yet

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.

Paul experiences an oedipal conflict towards his father and wishes that he could be the monetary provider for his mother. According to the psychoanalysis organization ChangingMinds “The Oedipus complex [is when] a boy is fixated on his mother and competes with his father for maternal attention” (changingminds.org). Paul discusses his father with Hester and asks if “[his] father [is] unlucky”. When she bitterly tells Paul that his father is “very unlucky”, he seizes the opportunity to claim that he “[is] a lucky person”. Through this exchange with Hester, Paul realizes that he must be “lucky” in order to dethrone his father as Hester’s provider. Paul goes off in search of luck to present to his mother, and the narrator emphasizes Paul’s desires by saying “He want[s] it” three consecutive times.

In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” the mother is quite obsessed with the fact that she does not have enough money, even though she spends lavishly on materialistic things. She whispers to herself constantly about not having enough money, thus giving Paul the impression that he needs to do something in order to make her happy. The story mysteriously unfolds with Paul riding a magical horse that gives him prophetic visions of which horse would win the Epsom Derby. At first it seems like an interesting idea, but eventually Paul obsesses over money exactly like his mother. In the very end of this story, Paul dies from convulsions. Paul chooses the winning horse in the race, but he ends up losing his

Thesis Statement-The Rocking-Horse Winner” and “The Lottery” delivers two different uses of the conflict, theme, and tone. Though, the authors use some similar approaches to grab the reader’s attention by the things the characters do, say and want. The conflict in the two short stories are diverse in almost every way, yet they both lead to the death of a character in the end. In “The Rocking Horse Winner” the conflict of the story was instantly clear. The struggle relates to the Monetary challenges of the family. The need to gain more money lies at the middle of all the conflict that arises in the story. Paul knows his mother desires more money, which encourages him to try to be “lucky”. Paul can foresee the winning race horse after riding his rocking horse. Which lead to Paul covertly betting on horse races, and his uncle and Basset the gardener teaming up with him. Paul got money for his mother; but in the end, it wasn’t enough. The pressure began to effect Paul, as he is determined to make more money. Paul’s obsession with

Rocking Horse Winner is a book of many messages that can be interpreted in many ways. Not is very reading of this story the same, different outlooks will help you understand this story. The messages that caught my attention were those of detachment, unprovoked attacks and one of a folktale. We are told Paul's “relationship with his mother.” (Bentley) is one that is very poor because she makes him feel unloved. The town sees her as a very loving mom but fails to see the true side of thing. One thing that I will take from this reading is that our words hurt others more than we

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence is an unpredictable, fairytale-like abbreviate adventure about a mother of three who consistently worries about her banking problems. She has a son who is animated about addition out a band-aid to her predicament. This adventure aswell has an brusque catastrophe that gives off able emotion. Another abbreviate story, alleged “The Lottery”, has the aforementioned comedy of catastrophe the adventure with suspense. Written by Shirley Jackson, this adventure begins with a brilliant day in a village, but miserably ends with the stoning of one of the villagers. “The Rocking-Horse Winner” and “The Lottery” are two amazing belief that accept adverse ironies; however, they alter in accent and style.

Theme Discussion: The mother in “ The Rocking Horse Winner” is seemingly the root of all the problems in the story. Without her constant need for money and materialistic possessions, the other members of the family would not feel obligated to please her. The overwhelming need to please others and selflessness are two important factors in this story. Hester, the mother, has a strong need to have the finer things in life. Readers can see from the beginning of the story the strain money puts on the family. Lawrence says, “They read it in each other’s eyes” (Lawrence). From this statement the audience notes how apparent the struggle for money is. Readers can also see how selfless Paul is. He risks his own life for the sake of his mother’s well-being. After “looking into each other’s eyes” and sensing the need for money, Paul takes matters into his own hands. He feels the need to provide for his mother, so he tells the gardner, Bassett, all of his choices for the big races. Lawrence says, “I’ve got to know for the Derby! I’ve got to know for the Derby!”(Lawrence). From this, readers see Paul’s extreme urgency to win more and more money. As time progresses, Paul seems to worry immensely over helping his mother. Eventually, he starts to get sick. One night Hester heard a strange noise, but could not pinpoint it. Lawrence describes this noise saying, “It was a soundless noise”(Lawrence). The author’s use of hyperbole in this sentence makes readers feel almost eerie. Late in the night, the boy dies. The hypothetical “Rocking Horse of Life” is the cause of Paul’s death, even if no one else can distinguish it. Many recent movies carry the theme of selflessness just like “The Rocking Horse Winner”. In The Blind Side, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy take in Michael Oher, a football prodigy with awful living conditions. Even though they had an abundance of money and kids of their own, the Tuohy’s took Michael into their home as one of their own. In spite of the dirty looks they would get, the Tuohy’s did not care about their social status; however, they remained selfless and took care of Michael well past his college days.The theme of

That is when Paul finds his luckiness with his rocking horse, every time he rocks on it he sees the winner of the races and then he goes and bets on that winning horse. He never loses because he is always right, and his mom is very happy with him for bringing money home to her. Throughout Paul’s journey and finding his gift, Joe McCarthy says it all, “Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth” (Joe McCarthy). Paul had a great life, and he was trying to be the apple of his mother’s eye he died for her sake. Trying to please her and get her the money she needed, she brought this trouble upon her family, because she felt she needed to be more glamorous and showy rather than

On the day that Paul and his mother engage in a deep conversation about their current situation, his mother states out, “we're the poor members of the family...because your father has no luck” (437). Not wanting his mother to look stressed and unhappy all the time, Paul decides to do something that will make his mother happier. He goes to his family gardener, Bassett, for some ideas to obtain luck. When Paul starts to be dragged into the other side of the world, . Bassett influences Paul to join the world of gambling, specifically horse racing.

Lawrence portrays the message and a differing view of luck in Rocking Horse. This is a very bold and controversial topic in society. One either believes in luck, or thinks there is no such thing. If there is an initial belief in luck it goes on to continue and further split into a debate between good and bad luck. The mother in this story believes that her husband has very bad luck and therefore because of him, she has bad luck as well. Luck is also referred to as money in the story. The little Paul asks his mother on page 1248, “Is luck money mother” She responds and goes on to say, “It’s what causes you to 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.” This statement suggests that the mother does not believe in making their own means, everything is made in pure luck. This idea is what pushes her son to eventually be lost in the thought of good luck driving his family’s

The first message in D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is economics. It is often thought that people are their money. For the most part, this is true. In life you can always start from the bottom and go up, but this is hard with no money. Everything in life is expensive. Lawrence says on page 1247, “Although they lived in style, they felt always an anxiety in the house. There was never enough money. The mother had a small income and the father had a small income, but not nearly enough for the social position which they had to keep up.” The parents are more worried about keeping up the way they look instead of actually having enough money to survive.

“The Rocking Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence combines tragic realism, social criticism with aspects of fantasy elements to present the significant levels of symbolism. The combination of these mixed genres is a literary style that makes this short story inimitable. The story is written in a third person’s point of view and captivates the faulty sense of values demonstrated by the corrupt grasp of society. Lawrence demonstrates the tragic reality of this theme through the injurious relationship of a mother and her son.