Lucky Paul in The Rocking Horse Winner
"The rocking horse winner" by D.H. Lawrence is a striking story about a little boy, Paul who secretly rides his rocking horse to pick the winning horse in the various horse races that took place. After the beginning of the story, there is a short conversation between Paul and his mother about luck, and it was the conversation that started the whole dramatic episode which lead to Paul's death. The conversation between Paul and his mother, the phrase that is constantly heard in the house and the rocking horse itself are the main ideas covered in the scope of this paper.
The dialogue between Paul and his mother is mainly about luck and how a person can get money if such a person is lucky. From the story, the reader should be aware of Hester's crave for money and her expensive taste, therefore, it is not surprising when she talks her son into believing that luck brings money. We could also establish at this point that the family is at least living comfortably, meaning they were not very poor; "They lived in a pleasant house, with a garden, and they had discreet servants." Paul's mother tells him that his father is not lucky and because of this, she is no longer a lucky woman. The conversation ends with Paul believing that he is a lucky boy, and the action he takes in finding this luck is what brings his demise in the end.
The phrase "there must be more money" was mentioned in the story over ten times. The phrase symbolizes the insatiable desire the family has for money. In the early parts of the story the phrase was being heard by the children, and they knew that they heard it but none of them said anything about it. The reader can also conclude that the phrase also pushed Paul into the act he was doing to make all the money. The reader would notice from the story that the phrase grows louder when Paul's mother had possession of the five thousand pounds that was given to her by Paul, even though she did not know the money was from Paul "...and Paul's mother touched the whole five thousand. Then something curious happened. The voices in the house suddenly went mad". As if thirsting for more money the phrase grows louder because Paul's mother has spent all the money to satisfy her expensive taste.
Once he learns that luck brings money, the very component his mother yearns for, he goes on a mission with his trusty steed. He becomes violent hitting his wooden rocking horse with a whip and commands it, "'Now, take me to where there is luck! Now take me!'" (Lawerence 412). His obsession causes him to act out of character because the one items he cherishes has to endure the displaced frustration he has toward Hester. This shows how much he wants his mother to acknowledge his existence in her life. His goal in finding luck is to also find money in anticipation that Hester's search will cease forcing all of her attention on him. Paul not only loses his temperament but his childhood as well. He becomes preoccupied with gambling when it should be superheroes and sports. He rocks on his horse compulsively until he falls ill screaming out the winning horse's name: "'Malabar! It's Malabar!'" (Lawerence 412). As his prediction comes true, Hester collects the prize money, and Paul believes he has obtained the unobtainable. He hunts for her acceptance one last time asking, "'Over eighty thousand pounds! I call that lucky, don't you mother?'" (Lawerence 422). Hester replies, "'No, you never did'" (422), and he dies later that night without ever knowing his worth. She is unable to give him his dying wish of her
Luck and love have always been two very important and contradicting themes in many stories. Children and adults would go above and beyond to receive their parent’s affection and approval even to the point of death and isolation. At times this creates a dysfunctional aspect in the family’s lives. “A Rose for Emily” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” have very similar symbol meanings and themes explaining the dysfunctional family, love and luck.
Paul believes that everyone around him is beneath him. He is convinced that he is superior to everyone else in his school and in his neighborhood. He is even condescending to his teachers, and shows an appalling amount of contempt for them, of which they are very aware.
All throughout the novel Paul makes a lot of choices and all those choices have a
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 priceless items such as love. Paul’s mother and father were incapable of maintaining the social position they had to uphold with the amount of money they made. The house was always high strung and believed that there was always a need for more money. The house became haunted by the unspoken phrase, “There must be more money!”
Paul desire his mother’s love more than anything. However he believes he needs to prove he is lucky. He struggles to prove that he is to make his mother happy. Paul wants his mother to love him more than anything. For Paul’s mother money equals luck, and this will gain her love. “There must be more money”(19). He hears these voices throughout the house. They hear these voices when hey are receiving items of joy, especially around Christmas time. The other children can h...
She complains about not having enough money that the house starts to echo the phrase, "There must be more money!" This statement caused the children, especially Paul the oldest, to feel the need help finding more money. Paul does this by gambling with the gardener. at the horse race track. Paul wins a lot of money before any of his family.
Around the end of the story, Paul decides to run off to New York for a week to finally live his dreams. However, by making his dreams a reality he exposes himself to something he wasn't prepared for, the truth. At first, everything is all Paul ever wanted it be. He is able to finally live life as he sees fit. He spends his money without care, and is able to live up to all his lies. (Although this reaches its climax when Paul meets a young man in the street), "The young man offered to show Paul the night side of the town, and the two boys went out together after dinner, not returning to the hotel until seven o'clock the next morning" (Cather 11). After this, Paul's fake reality falls apart quickly. Faced with the reality that he will have to return home, Paul decides to take his own life. Instead of ending it quickly with a gun, he decides to go a different route, "When the right moment came, he jumped. As he fell, the folly of his haste occurred to him with merciless clearness, the vastness of what he had left undone. There flashed through his brain, clearer than ever before, the blue of Adriatic water, the yellow of Algerian sands. He felt something strike his chest, and that his body was being thrown swiftly through the air, on and on, immeasurably far and fast, while his limbs were gently relaxed. Then, because the picture-making mechanism was crushed, the disturbing visions flashed into black,
The first and most emphases is the dark feeling of despair when he realizes that his father was coming to New York City. "It was to be worse than jail, even; the tepid waters of Cordelia Street were to close over him finally and forever". (Kennedy & Gioia, “Paul’s Case,” para. 57) From this statement, Paul finally accepts that is fate is to live on Cordelia Street and become what he despises the most; poor. Another important reason was that his craving for money and entrance into the upper class, "more than ever, money was everything, the wall that stood between all he loathed and all he wanted". (Kennedy & Gioia, “Paul’s Case,” para. 61) Other important issues that were mentioned but not truly discussed where his homosexual tendencies and his mother’s death early in his childhood The final and most important reason Paul commits suicide is because he feels alone in a hostile world that does not understand him and his love of beautiful things, color, art, and music. "It occurred to him that all the flowers he had seen in the glass cases that first night must have gone the same way, long before this. It was only one splendid breath they had, in spite of their brave mockery at the winter outside the glass; and it was a losing game in the end, it seemed, this revolt against the homilies by which the world is run". (Kennedy & Gioia, “Paul’s Case,” para. 64) From this statement alone, Paul feels
...aul had paid the price of losing out on his childhood in order to try and give his mother money. A child shouldn't have to miss out on his youth because of his mother's obsession with having more money. Paul's mother paid an even greater price, she lost her only son. Paul died from what seemed like exhaustion from riding his rocking-horse for too long. In the end, Hester found out why Paul was riding his rocking-horse and she must of felt horrible that her son had died trying to please her.
Within the story entitled The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence, the audience is divulged into the sordid family life of a adolescent boy named Paul, where there are three obvious morals told through the story’s style and symbolism. Also present within The Rocking Horse Winner are elements of supernaturalism and cold harsh reality.
Paul, the child, knew that his family wanted money, and he knew that he was lucky, betting on the horses. Paul became partners with the gardener. He picked the horse, and the gardener placed the bet. Paul had started out with five shillings but his winnings kept adding up. When he had made 10,000 pounds he decided to give his mother 1000 pounds a year for five years. He wanted his winnings to be a secret so a lawyer handled the money. Paul saw the envelope from the lawyer and asked his mother if she had received anything good in the mail. She said "Quite moderately nice" (p. 168) in a cold voice. She liked getting the money, but she wasn't happy. She wanted more.
... becomes very disappointed that his mother hasn’t shown any affection. All the money he won never got Hester to show any affection to him and crushes Paul’s heart. The love of his mother is gone because of her selfishness and greed she revealed when her son was just trying to make her happy so he can receive affection.
To be a teacher it is imperative to have philosophies on teaching; why you want to teach, how you want to teach, and what you want to teach. There are six main philosophies of education; essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, existentialism, perennialism, and reconstructionism. My two strongest philosophies are progressivism and existentialism. Progressivism in short is the philosophy where the student utilizes their ability to access knowledge for themselves with a method they have discovered on their own instead of simply being told answers. This creates deeper thinking. Existentialism is the philosophy that the student decides how and what they will learn, they also decide what they think to be true and false. This creates
Progressivism is a theory of education that encourages students to think on their own and create their own ideas to test out. In order, for the students to figure out the answer to their new idea or concept learned with hands on experiences used in the classroom. The progressivist named John Dewey believed that people learned most when their past experiences related to the concepts they are currently learning. This allows the students to connect with their experience that happened in life to the new stuff they would currently learn in the classrooms. In which, the students would engage more to learn about the new ideas or knowledge. Progressivists also believed that education should allow students to learn from each other to create a better society. The teacher’s role in the classroom is to keep in check that the students are on task but not under mind their new ideas while doing an experiment. The methods they use are student focused or orientated such as discussion, mental modeling. The students can engage with their peers and discuss their new ideas or own opinions with other without any judgement of being wrong. Progressivism and epistemology are closed connected because they let students help each other out learn new ideas with the information given by the teachers, and can connect it knowledge they have from previous