D. H. Lawrence’s A Rocking- Horse Winner depicts a boy’s obsession with luck and how it could bring money for his family. Accustomed to luxury, the parents of Paul (the boy’s name) live beyond their means, incurring debts and putting enormous pressure on them to earn more. Paul’s mother is unhappy, believing their financial difficulties is due to the fact that she is married to an unlucky man. Her quiet desperation is transmitted to her children, particularly Paul, who becomes resolved to find luck by whatever means. Their house itself seems to absorb their thoughts, amplifying them and tormenting Paul and his two sisters by its constant “whispering”. Paul discovers that by riding his rocking-horse he could “know” the winner of a horse race. He confides his secret to Basset, the gardener, and later to his uncle Oscar Cresswell, who is convinced when the boy’s predictions of winners come to pass. Paul secretly shares part of his winnings with his mother by making it appear that somebody had gifted her with five thousand pounds. But rather than stop, the voices in the house silently scream for more money. To placate them, Paul tries to know the winners of the next races, but could not, and he becomes desperate day by day. He rides his rocking-horse in frenzy until one night his mother finds him alone in his room. Paul collapses and falls into a coma, shouting the name of the Derby winner, Malabar, who is a huge underdog. His uncle and Basset place big bets on the horse, which wins indeed. They bring Paul the good news: he has won some eighty thousand pounds. The boy exults from his delirium, but later that evening he dies. Money or the craving for it, lies at the theme of this story. Paul’s parents are cursed with the perpetual need to maintain their expensive lifestyle. Hester, Paul’s mother, is not content upon receiving the letter informing her of the gift of five thousand pounds to be paid in installments within five years - she wants the whole lot at once. But the “house” itself is not satisfied: it becomes greedier than ever. The author may have used the supernatural element in this story to add to the tension, the excitement, to create the tense atmosphere that builds up to the eerie climax. Almost everybody dreams of winning a fortune. Such dream becomes an obsession when one is faced with bankruptcy, or lawsuits, or having to keep up with the Joneses. The wooden rocking-horse symbolizes a child’s innocence and his unquestioning belief in magic and wonders. Paul could thus have faith in his rocking-horse, asking it to perform a feat he would be foolhardy to ask of a real person. The insatiable craving for riches has a strong influence in the way men live. More often, it leads them on the road to perdition. A Rocking-Horse Winner shows how such attitude could unleash negative forces in a home and develop the mysterious powers of a child, troubled by the constant “whispering” of the house, to find money by willing it.
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