Commentary on The Rocking Horse Winner Essay

The Rocking-Horse Winner

To begin with, The Rocking-Horse Winner is a short story written by D.H. Lawrence. This short story is about a young boy named Paul who feels the need to have luck, due to his mother always saying that his father has no luck and is always in the need for having more and more money. According to the mother, if you have luck you have money that is why its better to be born lucky than rich (P, 268 Para 5). Due to this constant saying, Paul and the rest of the family hear voices in the house saying There must be more money (p. 267, Para, 5). Paul is so sick of these voices that he wants to prove his mother wrong. Paul says to his mother that he has luck and the mother then just begins to laugh at him. Paul now set out to prove his mother wrong by showing that he does have luck and he hopes that the voices in the house would stop talking and saying There must be more money(p267, Para, 5). Paul then demands that his rocking horse that he had received at Christmas brings him luck. Paul begins to ride the rocking horse fiercely hoping that if he rides long and hard enough he can make the rocking horse take him to his destination of luck and fortune. As he rides the horse he sees the horse winners in a real horse race. So he shares this information with his Gardner, Basset, and his uncle, Oscar, because the boy thinks that they are also lucky. So as the boy begins to predict more races and wins a lot of money, Paul finally decides to give his mother one thousand pounds a year for her birthday for the next five years hoping that the voices in the house will disappear. After Paul gives his mother

The money, the house noises begins to grow louder and louder. In desperation for the winning horses name, Paul is getting worried because he is not getting any answers from his rocking horse. As the Derby was right around the corner, that night Pauls mother had gone out to a gathering and she had started to feel this funny feeling that something bad was about to happen to Paul so she decided to leave the gathering early to see if everything was okay with him. As Pauls mother arrives at home Paul begins to ride his horse vigorously wanting to gets the race horse name. As his mother was walking into Pauls room, Paul screams Malabar (P.276. Para 11).As he falls off the rocking horse causeing himself to go unconscious with a brain fever. As the mother rushes to pick him up, not knowing what Malabar meant she asked the uncle and he replied that it was a horse that was going to be racing in the Derby. Oscar and Basset then placed bets on the horse and off that winning horse Paul had made over 70,000 pounds and the boy then asked his mother Do you think Im lucky mother? (P. 277. Para.4), and the young boy then died that night trying to prove to his mother that he had been lucky.

With this story, The Rocking-Horse Winner, I saw a specific theme that really popped out at me even within the first few pages, and it was greed and envy. As the Mother and Father were always wanting more and more money, because there was never enough for the mother and father they were always trying to live their lives as if they had all the money in the world as if they were the upper class people. They soon climbed themself into so much debt that all they would do is complain about never having any money and that they were always in desperate need of it. Due to the fact that it was all of what the parents ever talked about, it was the only thing that was on their minds. The children could sense this and Paul the oldest child along with his younger sisters would hear voices that were said to come from the house saying that There

must be more money (p267, para.5).So Paul asked his mother one day why they didnt have a car. And why they had to ride in taxis? His mother replied that its because your father is unlucky and when you are unlucky you dont have money. This then puts the idea into Pauls Head that if you are lucky then you are rich. This is where the envy comes in because now Paul wants to become lucky so that he can get money so that he can give it to his mother, he wanted his family to come out of debt and then the house will be silent for good. He would then never have to hear the voices ever again. The boy then realizes he has a gift where he can tell who the winner of the horse races is going to be when he rides his rocking horse. The boy then tells his Gardner, Basset and his uncle, Oscar because he feels as if these people are also lucky. Instead of Basset and Oscar telling him that he doesnt have to do this and that he should leave the financial problems to the parents, they hop on his luck and begin to take him for granted because they want to be rich. When Paul begins to win a lot of money, he finally decides to give some of his money to his mother, but in doing this, he does not want his mother to know that he is lucky. He asked his uncle to give the money to his mother anonymous by her receiving one thousand pounds every birthday for the next five birthdays. When she received the money, she had kept it to herself not telling anyone that she had received it even though everyone knew she had. Being greedy, the mother went down to the lawyer to see if she could get the advancement in money because she had told them that she was massively in debt. Paul decided that she could have it because he would then just make more. When she received the money, new furniture and clothing was popping up everywhere and Paul was now going to be going to school which they could not afford before. Not only that, but the voices in the house where beginning to grow louder and louder. This was now showing a theme of greed because even though the mother was

given all this money, it still was not enough to make her happy and silence the house. Instead it made the mother want more, which made the house, grows louder with the need of more money. Paul then started to become more stressed because he was unable to pick a winner for the last two races, and so I believe the want and desire for money was starting to get to him also because he wanted the fulfillment of giving his mother money and silencing the house to prove that he was lucky. Then at the end, he finally rode the rocking horse so fast in desperation in wanting the horse winner name that he fell off the rocking horse giving him a concussion and brain fever after he shouted the name of the winning horse. When Basset came through the door telling Paul and his mother that he had picked the winning horse and won over 70,000 pounds, Paul then asked his mother if she thought he was finally lucky now. He then died that night.

What I got from the end of the story was that no matter how much money he had given his mother, she was always going to want more and more, but as soon as Paul died trying to prove that he was lucky and trying to get money for his family so that they could silence the house and remove his familys debt.