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The Rocking-Horse Winner Conflict Essay

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The three short stories Barn Burning, The Rocking-Horse Winner, and Everything That Rises Must Converge are all very different by themselves. When read individually and not knowing of the other story, they would appear different from one another. Each story has different characters with different races, backgrounds, and personality. They are set in different in different time eras as well as the location the story takes place. But when looked at a whole these all have a common characteristic and that is their theme. All the short stories though have the frequent theme of parent-child conflict. In the The Rocking-Horse Winner the relationship between the mother and son was quite strange yet filled hostility with need of attention the son, Paul, needed from his mother. In the beginning of the story their is an important scene that shows this struggle. Paul and his mother are talking about luck and how the family has none. Paul then continues to say that he has luck and notices that his mother does not believe. “This angered him somewhat, and made him want to compel her attention.” The mother minded him no attention and this made Paul feel unloved. Also the father …show more content…

In the story there is only a mother and son relationship. The father is out of the picture as well. Julian and his mother are in the integrated south which has just became a new thing. With his father out of the picture he craves the duties of being the man of the household. But with his angst and frustration his mother gets the hit. You do hurt the one’s you love it is part of being a family but with this family missing a piece Julian feels the need to step up to the plate. Julian says to his mother “I hate to see you behave like this,” appearing as if he’s the parent and she’s the child. The theme is represented as parent-child conflict but it is son who is struggling with power rather than attention with his

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