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The Rocking Horse Winner, By D. H. Lawrence

741 Words3 Pages

The Rocking Horse Winner, by D.H. Lawrence, is a short story about a young boy named Paul that gets addicting gambling because he believes it will win his mothers affection. The mother believes the only people that are lucky are those who have money. He believes that when rides his rocking horse he can accurately predict the winning race-horse. Paul places bets on winning horses and continually gets more and more addicted to winning the money. Anonymously, he sends a large amount of his continuous winnings to his mother. The mother grows concerned for her sons health and precedes to send him to the seaside to recover; however, he convinces to wait until after the upcoming race. She returns and finds her son still riding his rocking horse. He collapses onto the floor with a brain fever, but he is able to mutter the name of the winning horse. His mother realizes he is the root of the unnamed monetary donations to the family. The family places …show more content…

Lawrence conveys his message of familial deception and overall dysfunction through elements of greed and desire, which can be supported by aspects of historical …show more content…

She speaks about how Hester, the mother, only seeks worldly items. “The mother with her insatiable desire for material possessions believes that money will make her happy despite the obvious fact that so far it has not” (Piedmont-Marton n.p.). In her short story criticism, she touches on the fact that mothers often raise the sons to be what their fathers were not. This holds true in The Rocking Horse Winner because the father is coined as very unlucky. This makes Paul feel that the only way he can gain his mothers affection is to be lucky. Paul learns that he should associate money with happiness or love. Marton believe he represents someone who searches for their own personal values in a culture that finds value only in

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