The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence

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Recommended: Literary analysis "the rocking horse winner

With a household comes the responsibilities of maintaining a happy and stable family. The duty of having a secure family involves financial security, which ensures a household has enough to eat, stays properly nursed, and clothed. The level of happiness relies on the dynamics of the family itself, such as how supportive and attentive a family is to one another, but often times happiness is blindsided by money. Financial security and happiness can be confused and overshadowed by the aspiration of money and consumerism. Families provide their household’s financial needs, but neglect the emotional aspects. The overpowering need for money takes a toll on families. D.H Lawrence’s short story explores the dynamics of money and its psychological toll. The story’s unhappy family in D.H Lawrence’s short story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, demonstrates the adverse psychological effects that derive from the insatiable desire of money and mindless consumerism.

The stories dissatisfied family demonstrates the adverse psychological effects that arise from the insatiable desire for money. The family’s desirous yearn for more money causes a crazy obsession amongst them. Obsession is described as the domination of a person’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image or desire (Dictonary.com). Obsession is first seen in the family as the narrator describes them,“there was never enough [money]….there was always the grinding sense of the shortage of money…” (Lawrence 36). Although the family’s basic financial needs are met, they are unsatisfied, and continue to want more. The young main character, Paul, is consumed with the obsession of money. Paul’s maddening obsession climaxes as he savagely rocks on his rocking-horse in hopes of picking ...

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... desire for money and mindless consumerism. As Ben Franklin once said, “Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.” (brainyquote.com).

Works Cited

Barrett, Gerald R., Thomas L. Erskine, and D. H. Lawrence. From Fiction to Film: D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-horse Winner." Encino, CA: Dickenson Pub., 1974. Print.

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

Kearney, Martin F. Major Short Stories of D.H. Lawrence: A Handbook. New York: Garland Pub., 1998. Print.

Lewis, Leon. "The Rocking-Horse Winner." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.

Miller, Geoffrey. Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior. New York: Viking, 2009. Print.

"Money Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

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