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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