The similarities and differences in D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and Graham Greene's "The Destructors" (reprinted in Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp, Literature: Structure, Sound, an Sense, 6th ed. [Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1993] 291-303 and 49- 60) are easy for the reader to see. The settings of these two stories are different but two characters, mother in "The Rocking-Horse Winner," and Trevor, in "The Destructors," are very similar in that they are both evil characters.

"The Rocking-Horse Winner" is set in "a pleasant house, with a garden"(291) where a family consisting of mother, father, a boy and two girls live. They have servants and beautiful surroundings "and felt themselves superior to anyone in the neighborhood" but the mother felt they had "no luck" (291). It becomes obvious early in the story that the house was haunted by a voice that could be heard all the time saying the words "there must be more money" (292). The boy, Paul, even hears the voice in the springs of his rocking horse. The mother of the beautiful haunted house constantly wants more money. Paul discovers that when he rides

The settings of the two stories provide a dramatic contrast. The setting in "The Destructors" is an old, neglected and bombed-out house in a desolate neighborhood. However the setting in "The Rocking Horse Winner" was a lovely pleasant but haunted house in a good neighborhood. The character Trevor, in "The Destructors," and mother, in "The Rocking-Horse Winner," are comparatively the same type of evil characters. Their compulsive behavior consumes their lives and effect the lives of those around them.

his rocking horse hard he mysteriously learns the winner at the horse races. Using this mysterious knowledge Paul earns a lot of money through gambling. Paul gives it anonymously to his mother in hopes that the money would "stop the whispering" but the voices in the house now "screamed in a sort of ecstasy: There must be more money...now... more than ever" (299). One day in order to get the name of the next winner, "Malabar"(302), Paul fell critically ill. Bassett, the gardener, who had been betting for Paul at the races, bet heavy on Malabar and wins eighty thousand pounds. Paul dies and Oscar, Paul's uncle, tells mother "Hester, you're eighty-odd thousand to the good and a poor devil of a son to the bad" (303). In contrast the setting of "The Destructors" is in London shortly after

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Approximate Word count = 870
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)