Themes In The Rocking Horse Winner

In every book or movie, there are moral lessons for the reader or "themes". Children are taught to identify the simple and obvious themes, as early as third grade. Among the most popular are probably "Change versus Tradition" and "Coming of Age". Simple books usually have one main theme, but complex books can have multiple. Themes are usually created or built up by several literary devices, such as irony, metaphors, foreshadowing. Throughout the story, "The Rocking Horse Winner" D.H. Lawrence intentionally created several ironic situations to bring about the theme "Money does not buy Happiness".
In the beginning of the story, the reader is informed that Paul's father and mother try to earn more money, but fail. Both are deemed as unlucky by his mother. His father had a small income and the family needed a second income in order to stay afloat, maintain their status within the community, and keep supplying themselves with their expensive tastes. It is summarized by this quote in the story:
"At last the mother said: "I will see if I can't make something." But she did not know where to begin. She racked her brains, and tried this thing and the other, but could not find anything successful. The failure made deep lines come into her face. Her children were growing up, they would have to go to school. There must be more money, there must be more money. …show more content…
The theme becomes obvious to the reader by the end of the story due to there being so many examples of irony. A few include the constant money struggle, constant dissatisfaction, gambling, and one loss and one gain. The far-fetched ending is also necessary to point out the theme. How many instances are there of sixteen-year-olds getting too wound up on a rocking horse and suddenly dying? This was necessary to show that gambling is a problem, and most don’t realize that until adulthood, but Paul didn’t make it that