The Rocking-Horse Winner Literary Analysis

In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, by David Herbert Lawrence, there is this family, as the family wants to keep their economic status, the mom want’s to have money all the time. The Mom has a mental mindset of the family being rich, as she believes that she has money, but in reality, the family is not rich and they have no money as they are in debt. The mom is unhappy as the parent's marriage is unsatisfactory, the mom thought she was lucky before she got married to her husband, so she thinks that her husband gave her bad luck. Both parents have no luck. The mom does not like her own children. The mom tells his son Paul, that she and Dad have no luck. This short story has many secrets that various of the characters keep from one another. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, the theme is a Moral Obligation as Hester the mom does not like her kids and only her and the kids know, Paul keeps from his mom that him, uncle Oscar, and Bassett have been betting on horse races and that the “Rocking-Horse” gives Paul luck.

     In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” irony is an underlying theme used throughout the story. The setting is introduced as a “clear and sunny” day, but ends with the brutal death of a housewife (715). The two people who essentially run the town, Mr. Graves and Mr. Summers, also have ironic names. In addition, the characters and the narrator make ironic statements throughout the story.

Snodgrass, William De Witt. “A Rocking-Horse: The Symbol, the pattern, the Way to Live.” Hudson Review 11. Summer (1958): 191-200. Print. 13 Feb. 2014.

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence is an unpredictable, fairytale-like short story about a mother of three who constantly worries about her financial problems. She has a son who is fervent about figuring out a solution to her predicament. This story also has an abrupt ending that gives off strong emotion. Another short story, called “The Lottery”, has the same spectacle of ending the story with suspense. Written by Shirley Jackson, this story begins with a sunny day in a village, but miserably ends with the stoning of one of the villagers. “The Rocking-Horse Winner” and “The Lottery” are two sensational stories that have tragic ironies; however, they differ in tone

The settings in D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are both instrumental to their respective stories. While there are many setting similarities between the two stories and how they are introduced, there are also many contrasts to the way in which the settings are presented and the effects they have on their stories.

The character T. uses the word ‘beautiful’ to describe Old Misery’s house. The very word ‘beautiful’ worries Blackie because it represents the snobbish upper class society; “It was the very word ‘beautiful’ that worried him- that belonged to a class world you could still see parodied at the Wormsley Common Empire by a man wearing a top hat and a monocle, with a haw-haw accent” (Greene, 4). The author of “The Rocking-Horse Winner” conveys theme through the action of his characters. When the mother, Hester, receives five thousand pounds on her birthday she spends the money on material possessions. She lives a life of comfort yet is not satisfied because she longs for a life of luxury. She is unhappy with her husband because he cannot afford the lifestyle she wants. Her son, Paul, craves his mother’s love and attention. He bets on horse races and gives his winnings to his mother to make her happy. In the end he dies trying to satisfy his greedy

“The Rocking-Horse Winner”

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34, NIV). In the short stories, “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, and “The Prodigal Son” by St. Luke, the authors take an in-depth look at what the parents in both stories treasure. Hester, the mom in “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” values money and material items more than anything, even her son Paul. The Father in “The Prodigal Son” is a kind, loving man, who values his family more than anything money could ever buy. The authors of the short stories, reveal a recurring theme of how greed and materialism are incompatible with love, as seen through the character development of the parents, the conflict between the parent and child, and the way the conflict is resolved

Another theme which is not quite obvious for readers, is intimacy; is the closeness between the family. When Paul passed away, Oscar implies that Hester is now better off because of the large amount of money. Both Oscar and Hester do not care deeply for Paul, but when he lies ill, however, she is overwhelmed with “tormented motherhood”. Although she previously was described as stony-hearted upon Paul and his siblings and then Paul The greatest important theme of “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is luck, or more precise, the lack of it. The mother, Hester characterizes luck as an entity that causes someone to gain money and wealth.

“The Rocking Horse Winner” is a short story written by D.H Lawrence that follows the short and tragic life of a boy named Paul, who assumes he has amazing luck after realizing he can predict racehorse winners by furiously riding his rocking horse until he reaches a trance-like state. Unfortunately, as his family takes advantage of his gift and starts gaining more money, Paul’s luck begins to kill him. Literally. Throughout the story, there are several themes evident, such as wealth, life, conscious, existence; luck, family, and greed. The conflicts displayed are man vs man, man vs self, and man vs. society. The rocking horse has become an obsession for paul and the potential benefits it would have on his family, ultimately not knowing the actual harm it will cause.

This story is D. H. Lawrence's most grounded prosecution of realism and his most grounded exhibition of the contrariness of the adoration for cash and the affection for individuals. In Paul's troubled family, his folks' marriage is inadmissible. His mom is sexually baffled: "She had bonny youngsters, yet she felt they had been pushed onto her." Clearly, she feels not satisfied, but rather disregarded. The story tends to a couple of the subjects Lawrence is most exceptional for—well, some of them in any occasion. While it does exclude the same unequivocal sexuality that made Lawrence notorious in his day, much like Sons and Lovers, "The Rocking-Horse Winner" focuses an impressive sum on the association between a mother and her tyke. The

'The Rocking-Horse Winner' by D.H. Lawrence is a shockingly disturbing tale of materialism, wealth, and a mother's absent affection for her children. The family in the story is constantly lured by the sweet temptation of sin. Although the story doesn't directly speak about religion, it is obvious that the family is Christian from the references to Christmas (481) and to God (482). In this story, Lawrence depicts several of the most devious sins of mankind according to religious, particularly Christian, doctrine: greed, sexual deviance, and gambling. The theme of sin is subtly interwoven throughout the short tale by the representations and portrayals of these acts, and Lawrence also makes it

The Rocking Horse Winner, by D.H. Lawrence, is an informative story about luck and one's own fortune.  In this story, Lawrence attempts to illustrate how one can guide one's own fate, instead of allowing things to happen by chance.  He believes that the only person that affects what happens to someone, is really that person himself.  "Everything is what you make of it," is Lawrence's message to the reader.  By his use of characterization, instructional images, and irony in The Rocking Horse Winner, D.H. Lawrence attempts to convey to the reader that success and luck are not something that one simply waits for to arrive, but things that one must works to achieve.

D. H Lawrence was the author of The Rocking Horse Winner, which was one of his most famous stories, published in 1926. D.H Lawrence was intrigued with fate and destiny of life. The story was based around a young boy with intense amounts of determination because he felt he had to please his mother. D. H Lawrence expresses the conflict of economics and family, causing issues at that time period, and even today. In the story The Rocking Horse Winner, D. H Lawrence expresses three major messages.

No one can deny that the family in the “Rocking Horse Winner” expects too much. D.H. Lawrence writes: “Although they lived in style, they felt always