OPPapers.com

D.H. Lawrence

A Young Boy's Gift
The story of "The Rocking-Horse Winner" written by D.H. Lawrence is an account of a young boy's amazing ability to pick out winners in horse-racing. Lawrence portrays a tale of a family, short of money. Paul, the young boy is possessed with a mother incapable of showing any love. The voices in their house whispering, "There must be more money! There must be more money!" causes Paul to take further action in order to please his mother's financial needs and silence the house's haunting whispers. He sets out to find a way to get money through his luck, luck his mother lacked. In retrospect, Paul's desire to make more money for his family grows so intense that he falls into an illness and dies. Responsibility, generosity and greed, and the pursuit of love and luck are major themes in "The Rocking-Horse Winner", which can be seen through the use of D.H. Lawrence's characterization of Paul and Hester.
The first major theme seen in "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is Responsibility. Paul's mother, Hester is obsessed with wealth which is pitted against the responsibilities of parenting. We usually find that it is the responsibility of the parents to provide for the children in a family. In addition, it is also the responsibility of the parents to squander and finance their money carefully. However, in "The Rocking-Horse Winner" Lawrence portrays the parents of Paul as unsuccessful with financial dealings. "The father, who was always very handsome and expensive in his tastes, seemed as if he never would be able to do anything worth doing. And the mother, who had a great belief in herself, did not succeed any better, and her tastes were just as expensive" (Para. 4, lines 5-7). Hester's wasteful attitudes turn her responsibility as a parent in the wrong direction. As a result of this Paul takes on the responsibility to contribute, a responsibility Paul seems to be unaware of. Lawrence's use of responsibility as a theme can be related to our everyday lives. He...