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The Rocking Horse Winner Literary Analysis

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“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.
From a young age, Paul has a strange relationship with the rocking horse. This type of relationship happens to be one that most eight or nine-year-olds do not experience until they go through puberty. Despite, the story not directly mentioning it, one can imply that Paul happens to be entangled in deviant behavior. Whereas any regular eight or nine-year-old boy would be outside playing games, Paul yearns for erotic activities. “So he would mount again, and start on his furious ride, hoping at last to get there” (438). Furthermore, he had the tendency of riding his horse in front of his siblings, uncle, and mother and would not stop when they entered the room. This could indicate some type of sexual desire between him and his mother. This would resemble the concept by psychologist Sigmund Freud, which states that young boys are attracted to their mothers and fantasize about replacing their fathers. Paul wants to be able to provide for his family since their father cannot. "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" (442). Paul tries to take over the role of his father, however, he happens to be merely a young boy and unable to fulfill all the duties and properly run the household at such a young, naive age. Hence, his reason to make a deal with the devil. The rocking horse represents the devil. In order for Paul to have luck, he must make a deal with the

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