Start of Rocking Horse Winner
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All stories tell a story this is common knowledge. Most stories have a message they convey such as good trumps evil. Even fewer are the stories that tell two stories. Rocking-Horse Winner a short story written by D.H. Lawrence is about a child named Paul and his unnatural luck at the tracks to help his mom but this isnt the only story told. In the “Rocking-Horse Winner,” through the combined elements of characterization, symbolism, and setting create a theme of oedipal complexes which is between Paul and his mother.
Out of the three elements characterization is the most important to the development of the theme. Lawrence directly shows the oedipal complex through Paul and his actions of trying to help his mom. The main way this is shown is when Paul gives money to his mom to help her in fact Paul does everything in the story to help his mom. To achieve the money needed to help his mom Paul sets out to find luck. He does this through ridding the rocking horse. “He would sit on his big rocking-horse, charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily. Wildly the horse careered, the waving dark hair of the boy tossed, his eyes had a strange glare in them.” (Lawrence) This passage shows that Paul didnt want to help his mom he need to help his mom. He would go into trantz like state when he would look for luck to find the winner of the race. He would continue ridding his horse till he died latter on all just to help his mom get more money. The irony of this all is the mother is the antagonist and “is the force against which the hero is to throw himself and perish.”(Lamson 2)
The mother the character which Paul loves is egotistical and is the antagonist of the story and the killer of her own son. “it is the relentlessly unsatisfied woman-mother which kills him”(Junkins 2) She is never satisfied shown in the story when she reserves the gift and only wants more money think who or why the money was given. In the story her ego is described by the little hard place in her heart. It what she believes so she can deny the fact that she is egotistical. In the story she says she has no luck what she is a symbol of love in the story.
“mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky.”
“No, you never did,” said the mother.
But the boy died in the night. (Lamson 3)
This sums up the mother right her as she rejects her sons love because he did tell her that he was lucky. Not only does she condemn her own son she does it in one of the most violent ways. The mom has no love and is the one that killed her son.
In the rocking-horse winner the rocking horse is not just a childs toy but the symbol of Paul and his quest to find luck. In