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The Rocking Horse Winner Essay

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“The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H Lawrence is a story about a boy, Paul, craving his mother’s love and attention in life. Throughout the story, Paul’s mother is unloving toward her children and husband and very materialistic, always wanting more and more money to live her expensive lifestyle and show off to those around her. When Paul asks his mother why they are poor, his mother blames Paul’s father, claiming that he was unlucky and when she married him, so she too became unlucky. From that moment on, Paul declared that he was lucky and that he was going to prove it to his mother, hoping for love and affection from her. Paul constantly riding his rocking horse, even as he ages and grows, relates to Professor Foster’s chapter on sex, as Paul …show more content…

When Paul’s mother tells him that luck is needed to have money, Paul asserts that he is lucky. However, “[Paul] saw that she did not believe him; or rather, that she paid no attention to his assertion. This angered him somewhere, and made him want to compel her attention” (Lawerence 2). Paul’s mom had never been loving to her children. She had bought them luxury gifts to maintain their appearance, but she never gave them her endearment. Paul, as a young boy, wants the affection of his mother and is willing to do whatever he can to get it. He thinks that if he can show his mother that he has luck, she will finally love him. His high desire for his mother’s love shows that Paul has an oedipus complex, which is when a “. . . child desperately wants mother’s approval and love, child engages in highly secretive behavior involving frenetic, rhythmic activity that culminates in transporting loss of consciousness” (Foster 149). Part of Paul’s luck is riding the rocking horse, which becomes his secret as he becomes older and his family starts deeming it as weird that he still rides a child’s rocking horse. Also, while riding the rocking horse, Paul has a loss of consciousness as his eyes make him a new person as he rides

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