My Rockinghorse-Loser
"D. H. Lawrence's The Rocking-Horse Winner transports us into a world where a boy, feeling that his mother does not love him, gambles to compel her to give him what he craves. We realize quickly that Paul conceives his scheme under the influence of his mother. For though she responds with the technically correct explanation (or definition), when her son confuses the meaning of "lucre" with that of "luck," the boy senses that his mother's convictions and conduct are rooted in the same mistake: coming from a gambling family, to her everything in life depends on "luck." And though young Paul has extraordinary "luck" betting on horses to secretly supply his mother with large sums of money, which he expects to silence the whispers that haunt all her children, naturally, he does not succeed in "buying" her love. As a matter of fact, his ever more frantic efforts result in his death. Far from allowing the outcome to be attributed to chance, Lawrence encourages us to conclude that the mother is to blame for Paul's death in this fairy tale-like short story." The fundamentals of this story involve a boy's desire to be loved. In the beginning of The Rocking-Horse Winner, Lawrence explains that the mother is los
In the crucial conversation between Paul and his mother, Paul learns that his mother blames their family's poverty on luck. Paul then asks, "Then what is luck, mother?" and she answers, "It's what causes you to have money. If you're lucky you have money. That's why it's better to be born lucky than rich." Paul then explains to his mother that he is lucky. Later, Lawrence describes the boys feelings towards his mother's doubt, "The boy saw she did not believe him; or rather, that she paid no attention to his assertion. This angered him somewhat, and made him want to compel her attention." The quote shows that Paul wanted to prove to his mother that he did have luck. Because of the way that Paul's mother perceives luck, the only way he knew to prove that he was lucky was through money. This is how Paul hoped to win both his mother's attention and love. Throughout the duration of this story Paul, a young boy, tries to capture the love and attention of his mother. Because of a stone filled heart Paul's mother never notices her son's ambitions, which in the end kills her son. This story is given the title The Rocking-Horse Winner because of the boy's wonderful luck horse racing. We find in the end that the boy never gets the love that he longed for, and loses his life as the result. This quote demonstrates the reason for Paul's gambling, "'But what are you going to do with your money?' asked the uncle. 'Of course,' said the boy, 'I started it for mother. She said she had no luck, because father is unlucky, so I thought if I was lucky, it might stop the whispering." This text is proof that Paul's mother had little belief in her son. This quote might also make you think that the whispering may relate to the mother. Almost as if Paul perceives the whisper to be the silent pain his mother car
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1215
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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