Rocking Horse Winner Essay

Rocking Horse Winner

Winning or Losing?

(Discussing three messages from Rocking Horse)

Throughout the reading of Rocking Horse Winner a boy named Paul endures many hardships. He is told from his mother that they are unlucky and he begins to think that he needs to do something to help out his mother. "...belongs to the group of stories D. H. Lawrence wrote in the last years of his life." (Piedmont–Marton) Lawrence was one of the few writers that wrote stories about his life. We are told many messages from this reading, we are told of detachment, unprovoked attacks, and the folklore of the story. The first message we are told in Rocking Horse Winner is one of detachment from many events in the story. D.H. Lawrence "establishes its tone of detached irony a fairy."...show more content...

We are told that the little boy rides his rocking horse to learn the new winner of the horse races. We know that in real life one could not do this to figure out the winner. Rocking Horse Winner is look at as a "...resembles the fable or folktale..." (Piedmont–Marton). Many people don't like to read this story because the reality behind it is not true. Paul "...surging on his rocking horse." just to find the new winner of the race is something on one can do. At the end of the story we are told he dies but, it doesn't make it clear of just how he dies. There are many ways to interpret this and one was is to think that he went crazy and died. Rocking Horse Winner is a book of many messages that can be interpreted in many ways. Not is very reading of this story the same, different outlooks will help you understand this story. The messages that caught my attention were those of detachment, unprovoked attacks and one of a folktale. We are told Paul's "relationship with his mother." (Bentley) is one that is very poor because she makes him feel unloved. The town sees her as a very loving mom but fails to see the true side of thing. One thing that I will take from this reading is that our words hurt others more than we Get more content

D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking–Horse Winner" is a classic modernistic story about a family filled with inner conflicts all portrayed through the innocence of a young child. Tortured by a house that whispers to him, Paul tries to gain his mothers missing affection by presenting that he posses luck which gives him money. He presents this luck by picking the name of a winning horse while riding his rocking horse. The whispers which state "there must be more money" disturbs Paul and he believes it exists because his family does not have enough money. Paul drives himself to a state of insanity and perishes because of this. This story is written in a radiant way which displays several ironic situations and statements. Here are...show more content...

He believes in order to obtain money, one must posses luck. This brings forth the next example ofirony present which is shown on pg.77. In a dialogue with his mother, Paul asks "Is luck money, mother?", and his mother replies "No, Paul. Not quite. It's what causes you to have money." Paul then responds "Oh! I thought when Uncle Oscar said filthy lucker it meant money." This is ironic because Paul interprets filthy lucre as filthy lucker which he believes means luck but really meant money. It shows that Paul does not understand that luck is not money and that statement further shows his misunderstanding between the two concepts. Religious words and phrases are constantly being declared throughout the story. On pages 82 and 83 Basset refers to Paul's insight on winning horses in a religious voice stating "It's as if he had it from heaven." On pg.78 after stating he was lucky, Paul said God told him he was lucky. On pg 80 Basset was as serious as a "church". All these religious examples show that the rocking–horse is symbolized as a pagan idol. The rocking–horse is worshipped by Peter, Basset and later by Uncle Oscar who depend on the horse for their demands. The fourth and final example of irony is the phrase repeated by Paul throughout the story, "Honour bright". Paul uses this phrase when he is referring to the club or alliance that Basset and Uncle Oscar have formed with him in regards to his rocking–horse secret. Paul

Rocking Horse Winner

Conflict is a disagreement between opposing forces whether it's between themselves or an outside force. In D.H Lawrence's short story, "The Rocking Horse Winner", external and internal conflict is demonstrated. The conflict represented is within the son paul due to his families money issues. External conflict is defined as a disagreement between a person and a force outside of them.The external conflict presented in this story was the family's financial state, "There must be more money", and the son paul intended to help to give his mother what she wanted and to stop the whispers of the house. Paul's uncle introduced him to race horses and he began betting on the horses to earn money. Paul earned just enough money to send anonymously to his...show more content...

The son went knew that money would get his mother's attention. His way of getting money was horse race's but he struggled to get the names of all the winning horses. He eventually stressed himself out causing him to get ill and his mother still paid no attention to him. Another example of internal conflict is paul's struggle to prove he is lucky, "He knew the horse could take him where the luck was", and he rode his rocking horse to find his luck. Paul's luck was the rocking horse because when he rode it he was able to find the names of winning horses for horse races. His luck did cause him to lose money betting on the horses for a while. These conflicts were never truly resolved because even with paul's luck his mother still paid him no attention. He proved that he was lucky with the grand prize from the horse races that would keep his family out of debt, but with this luck came a horrible situation. Paul had put so much stress on himself that his illness quickly became death which isn't at all

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The Rocking Horse Winner

When a person is lucky, it does not have to mean that they are fortunate with money. Luck is the chance for things to go the way you want them to go with out having any control over the situation. In The Rocking Horse Winner, Hester, the mother seems to believe thatluck is strictly having money, and when there is no money, there is no luck. Hester's idea of luck meaning money brings forth the two ideas of greed and death throughout the story. Money plays a huge part in this story. Hester, the mother, is obsessed with having more and more money. She lives the life of a woman with money, never allowing anyone to see past the family's small income, "The mother had a small income, and the father had a ...show more content...

When he realized just how much money he had made, he took 5,000 pounds of it to the family lawyer to be given a thousand pounds to his mother, annually. But Paul didn't end here. He continued to bet and make more and more money. When Paul's mother received the letter from the lawyer, she got even more greedy. She went to the lawyer and asked if she could have all the money at once. Paul agreed that this would be okay. But the house just whispered louder, with more greed. Paul's mother had used the money foolishly again, instead of using it wisely to pay off her debt. "The voices in the house suddenly went mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening. There were certain new furnishings and Paul had a new tutor…there were flowers in the winter, and a blossoming of the luxury that Paul's mother had been used to" (442). Paul's mother and Paul's greed amplified: Paul continued to bet to make more money for his mother, and his mother kept spending money that she didn't have. Eventually the luck, or in this case, the unluck, had to run out, and it did. Paul's continual confusion leads him to find his "luck" of know the winning horses. Paul is successful at reaching this goal and fulfilling his mother's definition of luck. The whole belief of his mother's was the basis for Paul's confusion. Good luck for Paul would be to see his mother happy. He knew that money was what made her happy. According to

Rocking Horse Winner

Going Down the Wrong Path

(An analysis of D.H. Lawrence The Rocking Horse Winner.)

Have you ever tried to work as hard as you can to make someone else happy? D.H. Lawrence in his short story, The Rocking Horse Winner, is about a young boy who does just that. Jeff T. Dick wrote a great short summary about what this story is about, "Haunted by his mother's undisguised pursuit of money to support her materialistic lifestyle, and a young boy whips himself into a frenzy riding his toy pony in order to predict the outcome of future horse races at a local track." (Jeff T. Dick) The author takes us to a learning place, and all of the differences that people hold in their lives. People try so hard for others approval and sometimes they just can't reach...show more content...

Lawrence has the family in The Rocking Horse Winner always on the hunt for money. No matter how much money the family makes, there is always a need for more. This family is always on edge, feeling like they need more money to hold up their glamorous position in their town. The reason they feel this way is because the mother, Hester, feels like they always could use more money. This is what her thinking on this subject is, "If you're lucky, you have money. That's why it's better to be born lucky than rich. If you're rich, you may lose your money. But if you're lucky, you will always get more money." She teaches her kids with this same philosophy, if you are lucky you have lots of money, your father is not lucky therefore we do not have lots of money. We need more! That is when Paul finds his luckiness with his rocking horse, every time he rocks on it he sees the winner of the races and then he goes and bets on that winning horse. He never loses because he is always right, and his mom is very happy with him for bringing money home to her. Throughout Paul's journey and finding his gift, Joe McCarthy says it all, "Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth" (Joe McCarthy). Paul had a great life, and he was trying to be the apple of his mother's eye he died for her sake. Trying to please her and get her the money she needed, she brought this trouble upon her family, because she felt she needed to be more glamorous and showy rather than

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Rocking Horse Winner

Two divisions, two dissimilar endings, but the identical connotation, but what is that repercussion? We all phenomenon what it's like to speculation and always know the conqueror, or to be able to tell how someone will retort when you tell them an anomalous, but catastrophic story. But which story has a more shocking ending? Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence has the most shocking consummation because you don't envisage what will materialize to the boy. In Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence a young boy gambles by horse racing because he almost always knows who will triumph. He works with his family's gardener to save and spend money on gambling at horse races, even when no one else thinks he will victory, he customarily does. And when he isn't sure, he doesn't gamble as much, so he doesn't lose as much. In Rocking Horse there is voluminous messages because it is a life knowledge lesson from right and wrong, allotment on to money and spending it sagaciously and how his mother squelches to those types of condition....show more content... His uncle receipts him to a horse race and asks him which horse he wants gamble on. When the boy says the appellation of a horse that has never been a great racer, his uncle tries to talk him out of it. But when the race is over, the uncle comprehends the boy has a gift. But soon his inventions out that the boy doesn't neediness his mother to know about his accomplishment because he is frightened she will make him sojourn. He was veracious. A picturesque woman who marries for love, but soon finds their relationship decomposing. Children only make complications worse. She showers them from consideration and from an outsider's point of view, it looks like she loves them very Get