Kanesha Humphrey
English 12
Ms. Culpeper
8 December 2016
Path of destruction
According to Rusty Eric, “as long as greed is stronger than compassion, there will always be suffering.” The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence is about a materialistic family who confuses success and happiness with luck and money and it eventually lead to the family’s destruction. The parents’ have a dissatisfying marriage. The family can read the lack of love through each other eyes. Overall the family is broken and is blinded by the overtake of their own greed. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” D.H. Lawrence illustrate how greed and irresponsible parenting can destroy a family.
Irresponsible parenting leads to the family’s destruction. In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, Lawrence makes a statement displaying the mother’s
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The word money is not only defined at Its financial form but It is used to represent materialism and the lack of values. Loving money leads to nowhere in life (Wilson 235). The rocking horse symbolizes greed which leads to self destuction. It also shows that “the overwhelming desire for money is a road that leads nowhere, since this is a rocking horse that does not actually travel anywhere” (Wilson 235). Following the lead to nowhere, Paul desires are doomed. His mind is overwhelmed; he could not win his mother’s love as well as make himself into the ideal image of a good husband (Piedmont-Marton 237). He was just a child; it was just too much to take on considering there was no progress being made “the house had been ‘whispering’ worse than ever lately, and, even in spite of his luck, Paul could not bear up against it” (Lawrence 1002). The continuous whispering makes it clear that chasing money does not bring true happiness. It brought the family to realization, reminding them about their materialistic mindsets but no matter how much money the family had, they always wanted more and
Are all mothers fit for motherhood? The concept of motherhood is scrutinized in the stories “The Rocking Horse Winner” and “Tears Idle Tears”. In “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H Lawrence the mother, Hester, unpremeditatedly provokes her son into providing for her through gambling. In the story “Tears Idle Tears” by Elizabeth Bowen, Mrs. Dickinson disregards her son’s emotions and puts more emphasis in her appearance than her son’s wellbeing. Hester and Mrs. Dickinson both were inadequate mothers. Both the mothers were materialistic, pretended to love their offspring, and their dominance hindered their children’s progress in life.
“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story about a young boy, Paul, who has the supernatural ability to choose a winning race horse. It is not clear how the boy has this ability but he hears his mother’s voice echo in his mind saying that they are poor and so he sets out to change that. Paul takes on the stress of his mother’s greed. This short story relates to the obsession of wealth which what motivates the characters aside of neglect, faulty sense of value, opportunism and deceit. Paul believes that there is more money to be made and thus goes on a frenzy to win more, but consequently dies after falling off his rocking horse due to convulsions of a fever.
A Comparison of the Magic in "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and "A Very Old Man With
Paul asks his mother, “Is luck money, mother?” (Kennedy & Gioia pg. 174). Because his mother demonstrates that she is not happy without material things, her son believes that to make the house stop whispering he must provide her with the money to satisfy her materialistic values. Paul knew that when his mother looks at him she “the felt the center of her heart go hard” (Kennedy & Gioia pg. 174). Paul wanted his mother to love him. What he did not understand was that bringing her luck would not change things. Paul and his rocking brought him more money that only made the house whisper louder and louder each time. He did not understand that his mother was not happy because she did not have the money, but because she felt as though she was forced into the life she had. A life that did not suit her high-class expensive
D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner” is a short story about the bond between a boy and his rocking horse. The young boy Paul has a rocking horse that he is growing out of, but still saddles up anyway. He was born into a greedy family and has two younger sisters. In this story, Paul is taught the way his family values money, the luck that runs through his blood, as well as how gambling changes people. Paul’s mother is told that “she is such a good mother”.
When writing a captivating short story it is important to build a strong plot progression, conflict, and message throughout the text. The message of a story is also called the “theme”. The reason for a theme in a story is to give the reader something to “take with them” as they read through the dialog. It is typical to find deep, meaningful, and thought provoking themes in these short stories; the author aims to make a strong point in few words. “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are two examples of strong them in short stories. Both “The Rocking Horse Winner” and “The Lottery” have a common tread to their messages, which is winning may not always offer the solution to the problems in life.
Lawrence’s short story, “The Rocking Horse Winner,” the reader is presented with the idea that when an individual is faced with competing demands and that person chooses to abandon its self-preservation to prioritize other people’s demands, it can result in an individual living in a sorrowful life. Paul was raised in a world without any parental figures to help him and was also raised by a mother with a cold heart. Paul was so blinded by his goal to earn his mother’s love that he forgot about his own well-being. However, this did not benefit him at all because he never received the love that he needed. Though Paul is a selfless individual with a kind heart, his inability to balance his own well being with others is what made him weak. There is a subconscious need for humans to feel love, however, one must consider all the factors including oneself in order to make effective life
In ‘horse,’ the speaker describes a horse being betrayed and then killed in a small town in Texas. The first two stanzas described the horse thundering towards outstretched hands being attracted to a field of corn but instead it is attacked by a group of white teenage boys who leave it mutilated. The sheriff of the town does not do anything because he believes that it is in their nature to do so. In the last stanzas the Mexican owner puts the horse out of his misery and someone tries to pay him for the damage. His people are disappointed because they believe that money could not make up for the death of the horse but, they do nothing about it. It would seem the horse in the poem is meant to represent the Mexican culture and how it is being eradicated by the dominant white society in the United States.
In “The Necklace” and “The Rocking Horse Winner,” Mathilde and Hester are both characters that reflect the theme as they inevitably pay the price for their relentless desire for materialism. Hester’s unfulfilling need for money, caused by her dissatisfaction of her present life, drives Paul into an obsessive chase for money while harming himself in the process as he strives to satisfy his mother. This is evident as Hester found Paul “in his green pyjamas, madly surging on the rocking horse” when she returned from the party at about one o’clock (Lawrence 15). Paul’s obsession becomes his undoing as his “Eyes blazed at her… as he ceased urging his wooden horse. Then he fell with a crash to the ground” and upon his recovery, his mind was still
In D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-horse Winner,” Paul, a kind-hearted young boy with strange blue eyes, is betrayed by two people who should have loved and protected him. Paul’s uncle, Oscar Cresswell is portrayed as a very wealthy man, who takes advantage of his nephew’s ability and makes money for himself. Paul’s mother, Hester is described as someone who is not happy with what she was. She does not love Paul enough. The two characters, Oscar Cresswell and Hester, both betray Paul for their own good.
Everybody has, at one point in their life, had a desire for more money. D. H. Lawrence uses many symbols in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” to convey the fact that the pursuit of happiness through monetary gain ends in tragedy. The main symbol is the rocking horse, representing how the protagonist Paul is trying to win the affection of his mother. Next is Paul’s mother who demonstrates materialistic views. Finally, the voices in the house symbolize greed and corruption. Lawrence effectively uses these symbols to show how money destroys lives.
In both William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” and D. H. Lawrence’s “ The Rocking Horse Winner”, the authors give us a glimpse of two poor families who suffer through similar problems in different ways and situations. The comparison shows how in “Barn Burning” because of Abner’s recklessness and cruelty, his son Sartoris Snopes and family are unable to get into the larger society. In “The Rocking Horse Winner,” the mother’s greed for money and her behavior with her children and husband forces her son, Paul, to find a way to get more money. It shows how the behavior of Abner in “Barn Burning” and that of Paul’s mother in “The Rocking Horse Winner” affects their families
The main characters in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” are Paul, Hester and Uncle Oscar. Paul, a little boy with intense feelings, understands that his family needs more money due to their expensive taste. This is apparent when Paul learns that luck brings money and his family is unlucky, “Absorbed, taking no heed of other people, he went about with a sort of stealth, seeking inwardly for luck. He wanted luck, he wanted it…” (Lawrence 2). Becoming aware of how unhappy his family is, Paul focuses his attention on getting money to make everyone happier and fill in the shoes for his father. While Paul is trying to be generous and help his family, Hester is greedy by never being content or appreciative. An example of her not being appreciative is when Paul secretly gives her money on her birthday and she acts harshly, “her voice cold and hard and absent” (Lawrence 8). This description shows how cold Hester truly is, even with her own child, due to her determination to be as materialistic as possible. She doesn’t recognize how caring her son is. Hester and her husband never have enough money, which is evident in their lifestyle: “The mother…and the father had a small income, but not nearly enough for the social position which they had to keep up” (Lawrence 1). Despite not having enough money, the parents still chose to live exquisitely in order to have a good reputation and fit in with society. They are too greedy and blind to realize how
A relationship between a mother and son should be one that is full of unconditional love. The mother should be able to provide for the son and in return the son should look to the mother for comfort and stability. In D.H. Lawrence's, "The Rocking-Horse Winner," the relationship between the protagonist, Paul and his mother is not ideal at all.
According to D.H. Lawrence: a study of the short fiction Paul’s last words ““Mother did I ever tell you? I am lucky!” Are really a desperate, confused proclamation of his love” (4)? This demonstrates that even after all his mother has done he still loves her and cares about her. He sees more in his mother than her materialism, he knows that she still loves her family, even if she cannot control her need for more money. Unlike his mother Paul shows that he does not care about money by saying “oh, let her have it, then! We can get some more with the other,” (Lawrence 800). This proves how different both characters are and how not all people are materialistic even if they come from the same family. He is willing to give his mother all the money he has earned just to make her happy. This proves how important his mom is to him and how money is not important to him because he is willing to give up all the money he