The Rocking Horse Winner Theme

Decent Essays
In the short story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, the author D.H. Lawrence introduces his readers to various literary terms and themes. A family who is unlucky throw the burden of them not having money nor luck on their son Paul. D.H. Lawrence demonstrates how greed destroys love and, sometimes life. Hester’s drive for money, love, and luck pushed upon her son Paul. The young adolescent driven to his death trying to gain the love and affection of his mother.

Piedmont-Marton states in her work that Hester, Paul’s mother, want him to desperately be the husband that she does not have. Her husband has no luck and she blames him for her not having any as well. The themes that Marton points out in her work is money and happiness. She also goes on to mention later in the article that the theme could be related to “Pornography and Obscenity”.

In the article, the mother “represents the futility of the new consumer culture in which luck and lucre mean the same thing”. Lucre could be defined as money or a reward. Paul’s mother associated the two terms without clearly understanding the meaning for them. “The mother can never be satisfied and ‘every success brings a
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Lawrence. He join these themes to give us the reader a brief synopsis of what the short fable story is about without revealing the story. Paul 's mother desires wealth and material possessions instead of love and self-knowledge. Her desires are never satisfied, however, they result in the consequences of love and money being confused. A sexual subtext theme is also presented in the short story. Paul riding his rocking-horse has e an erotic quality, and the scenes were had been interpreted as representations of sex and masturbation. The story can also be placed on a less sexual aspect, but instead it could be viewed as Paul 's actions are a tragic attempt to win parental love from his hard-hearted

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