Theme Of The Destructors And The Rocking Horse Winner

“The Destructors” by Graham Greene and “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, are in many ways totally different but also very alike in others. British men wrote both of these famous short stories right after the time of the Second World War. Britain had been ravaged from the war so the real setting and time frame for these authors was identical. We will look at the major characters, themes, and settings of these two amazingly well written short stories.

We will first discuss the major theme of both of these short stories so that we might know how to address them going forward. Both stories are majorly centered on children. Lawrence develops his characters a bit more than the characters that Greene gives us insight into. Greene really only develops Trevor, called “T” in the story, and Mr. Thomas, who is called Old Misery. “T” is the new kid in town who rapidly becomes the gang’s leader. Mr. Thomas lives in an old, rickety house that is the only one left on the street. The Wormsley Gang sets their minds that they are going to destroy Old Misery’s house. In Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner”, Paul is the central figure of the story and his family is dealing with affects of poverty. Paul’s mother has a strong belief in luck so naturally; Paul becomes fixed on finding his own luck. The mother equates luck to be money as we see the phrase, “…there must be more money…there must be more money”, over and over again. Paul has become aware of the façade that his mother loves him when really she does not truly care about him. We see Paul become obsessed with money so that he might receive some resemblance of love from his mother. Both of the homes in these two short stories are very important and add to the plot.

Both pl...

... middle of paper ...

... rocking horse in the middle of the night. He wanted to find the winner of the race so badly that he literally rode himself to his own death. “The Destructors” ends with Mr. Thomas’ house being completely destroyed when a car pulls down the house. It is very ironic that children, not bombs from a world war, were the cause to destruction of Mr. Thomas’ home.

Both stories are evidence of what happens when greed and materialism consume people. Greene made it clear that the Wormsley Gang hates Mr. Thomas for his greed, which eventually leads to their destroying of his home. Paul was not supposed to tragically die in “The Rocking Horse Winner”. If anything, Paul’s mother deserved a horrible demise, not her innocent son. These stories are a perfect example to the simple truth that greed can and will destroy the people and the things that we treasure the most in our lives.