The Rocking Horse Winner: Examining Relationships Essay

Hester tells Paul that luck is “what causes you to have money. 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 money. But if you’re lucky, you will always have money.” (236) This pushes Paul to desperately seek out luck so that his mother will be grateful for her life and provide her family with the love and affection that they so rightfully deserve. Paul believes his rocking horse is full of magical powers, which will help him achieve the luck he needs to gain his mother’s love. While Paul rides his rocking horse, the horse predicts the winning horse and ends up making Paul an appalling amount of money. Paul gives his winnings to his mother who squanders it on unnecessary materialistic things. He realizes that he must win more money to win his mother’s affections. He becomes mad and frantically searches for the next winner of the horse races. On Paul’s last ride to find the last winner of the horse race, he falls of the horse and eventually dies.

237). By riding his rocking horse Paul is able to predict the winner of horse races at the track. He uses this ability in an attempt to provide for the family. In doing this he tries to assume his father’s in an attempt to please his mother and the household’s constant whispering the need for more money. “I started it for mother. She said she had no luck, because father is unlucky, so I thought if I was lucky, it might stop whispering.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, pp. 240) even as Paul is dying he is still consumed with trying fill the role of a provider for his mother, “I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse and get there, then I’m absolutely sure – oh, absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!” […] “But the boy died in the night.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, pp. 245). Paul’s death was a sacrifice to please his mother, who put her desires for money and material things above the love of her children.

When he is reunited with his mother "[they] say very little," but when she finally asks him if it was "very bad out there" Paul lies. In trying to protect her by lying, Paul creates a separation between his mother and himself. As Paul sees it, the tragedies and horrors of war are not for the uninitiated. Sadly, the true nature of war further separates the two generations.

First of all, Paul’s parents have an immense part in creating the way in which Paul thinks about himself throughout the novel. For example in page 94, Bloor quotes, “Mom , you ruined my life at Lake Windsor Middle when you turned in that IEP.” This simple quote thoroughly proves that the act that Paul’s mom performed affected Paul

the love and care he unknowingly needs. Paul takes on roles that disguise his own traits and turns him into what he believes to be a person nobody can say no to. When he takes on these roles, he

In Paul's true reality he has a lack of interest in school. His disinterest in school stems from the alienation and isolation he has in

We find out that Paul's mom had given up everything just to be able to have Paul in custody. Both of Paul's parents chose with passion. His mother had a Passion for Paul which is what motivated her to trade everything for paul. Paul's father had a passion for money which is what allowed the father to be able to disown his child, No communication or visitations. A Lot like Paul's passion to only fear them to reality with the bomb, where Charlie wanted to harm, destroy, and tear apart the room, people, and his grade. The lack of responsibility in Paul's lead to criminal acts that held consequences he could have avoided if only he ignored his passion to be popular.

Paul also hears the cry, "there must be more money" echoing through the house's walls (Lawrence 525). "Paul . . . takes upon himself the intolerable burden of attempting to solve mother's 'problem' . . . the lack of money" (Jinkins 88). He takes this challenge hoping to receive his mother's love in return. Instead Paul rides himself to his death because he is unable to meet his "devouring" mother's needs (Jinkins 89).

In Daniel P. Watkins journal entitled “Labor and Religion in D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking- Horse Winner,” ” he references the piece of the story where Paul’s mother has begun to take and utilize the money he has been making. Unbeknownst as to where it actually came from she simply accepts and inquires as to more and more money coming in. It is not utilized to better their situation but to again keep with appearances and advance social standing and status. “There were certain new furnishings, and Paul had a tutor. He was really going to Eton, his father’s school, in the following autumn. There were flowers in the winter, and a blossoming of the luxury Paul’s mother had been used to. And yet the voices in the house, behind the sprays of mimosa and

It is as if Paul lives in the sun and knowledge of the world, baring that burden while others in society live in darkness with slight sliver of light from the moon believing they know the world to its full extent when in reality they are blind and in the dark. This affects Paul since he possess ideas from another point of view that others have no clue about. This is important because without the knowledge that Paul posses, he would be like his none the wiser parents, which would affect the story a great deal. For example, on page 152, Paul tells his friend, “Don’t do this. Don’t come in here with attitude.” Paul knows how to adapt to the places around him and knows that by accepting the facts and the brunt of the blow, they will accept him begin to

Finally, when her husband becomes angry and starts to scolds her, she chooses to endure it. Although she knows that her job is no less valuable than her husband’s job, she does not refute him. Her choice avoids many unnecessary quarrels between her and her husband. She is the first and only person to say, “I love you.” (Gilb,360) in the entire story. She loves her husband and her family deeply. According to a research in psychology today, Barton Goldsmith mentions that “Mothers are the emotional backbones of the family.” (Goldsmith, P6) Obviously, she provides the holding place for everyone’s feelings and does her best to keep them from being and getting hurt.

In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” the mother is quite obsessed with the fact that she does not have enough money, even though she spends lavishly on materialistic things. She whispers to herself constantly about not having enough money, thus giving Paul the impression that he needs to do something in order to make her happy. The story mysteriously unfolds with Paul riding a magical horse that gives him prophetic visions of which horse would win the Epsom Derby. At first it seems like an interesting idea, but eventually Paul obsesses over money exactly like his mother. In the very end of this story, Paul dies from convulsions. Paul chooses the winning horse in the race, but he ends up losing his

Paul's father had abused him emotionally, and probably physically, throughout Paul's life. He did so much to Paul's flagging self-image that he had to boast to others to make himself feel big, when he felt tiny inside. When he finally achieved that "bigness" that he always wanted, the glamour of "the good life," his father found him out and took that away from him, or rather, made Paul give it up. This made Paul feel even smaller and made him feel that he would be better off dead. So Paul decided to make his life "better off" and

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

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story by the English novelist, essayist and literary critic D.H. Lawrence. It represents how the author cautions about the negative effects of materialism, as it can never fully satisfy the human need and will eventually end in tragedy and unhappiness. Lawrence does so through the archetypes of the terrible mother, the hero, and the anti-wise old man.