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