Critical Appreciation
David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. He portrayed same issues in "Rocking Horse Winner" in which capitalistic society compelled a family to make more money, but the consequences caused misery. D.H. Lawrence wrote this in the 1930’s.
The main themes in The Rocking-Horse Winner are the pursuit of love and luck. Both of the main characters in The Rocking-Horse Winner, Hester and Paul, are in pursuit of love. This short story act as an umbrella, and covering the themes of Neglect , greed ,obsession, luck and money, Quest ,Deceit and an emotionally distant style of parenting.,” The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a sardonic tale employing devices of the fairy tale and a mockingly detached tone to moralize on the value of love and the dangers of money.” The Rocking-Horse Winner" is Lawrence's distain for conspicuous consumption, crass materialism, and an emotionally distant style of parenting popularly thought to exist in England during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thus, the story is considered by many to be an example of modernist prose.
This short story, first of all shows a mother who has no love for anybody, but for money. She externally shows love for children, but internally love money as this text shows " at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody” (paragraph 1).Here you can smell the theme of deceit.
Paul son of Hester, is looking for love affection and attention of her mom, but he gets a definition of luck. The dialogue between Paul and his mother is mainly about luck and how a person can get money if such a person is lucky. From the story, the reader should be aware of Hester's crave for money and her expensive taste, therefore, it is not surprising when she talks her son into believing that luck brings money. We could also establish at this point that the family is at least living comfortably, meaning they were not very poor; "They lived in a pleasant house, with a garden, and they had discreet servants." Paul's mother tells him that his father is not lucky and because of this, she is no longer a lucky woman. The conversation ends with Paul believing that he is a lucky boy, and the action he takes in finding this luck is what brings his demise in the end.
Paul is not greedy for money, but love which ultimately leads him for pursuit of money to win the love of his mom. Then D.H Lawrence showed the quest not of warrior or commander, but of an 8-13 year old boy whose destination is love. Paul rides his rocking horse like a knight on a quest. He seeks a great prize, luck that will enable him to win money wagering on horses. His winnings will free his mother from a great monster, indebtedness that consumes all of her attention. Once free, she will be able to turn her attention to Paul and give him the greatest prize of all: love.
This story also shows the behavior of parents exist in England during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. D. Snodgrass offered a Freudian interpretation of the story in The Hudson Review in 1958. His interpretation hinged on the resemblance of "luck" to "lucre", and the vaguer resemblance of both to "love." Snodgrass argued that Paul's desire "to be lucky" represents an oedipal (Oedipus complex) desire to replace his father in his mother's life. These are the aspect of story’s themes. Now let’s talk about the story thesis statements.
Ø The boy's parents caused his ultimate death by their living beyond their means spending habits.
Ø The boy in "The Rocking Horse Winner" is a victim of a capitalist society.
Ø The Uncle in the story "The Rocking Horse Winner" is symbolic of capitalism and the drive to continue to obtain a greater income.
Now let’s talk about literary devices including elements which are used by writer so beautifully and properly. This piece of writing has every thing in it. There is irony in the story’s title. Paul, the rocking-horse winner, loses his life. Ironic, too, are Paul’s final words: “I am lucky” (241). , in paragraph 18 (“It’s what causes you to have money”), Paul is lucky, of course.
Sometimes an author might use the device of allusion by naming a character that recalls another character in literature. Such is the case with Hester, Paul’s mother, who calls to mind the Hester in Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Hester is a woman who breaks the sexual rules of her puritan society and suffers the consequence. She desperately loves her child, however, which is ironic in terms of the lack of love Paul’s mother shows for him. As for Paul, his name resonates with the Paul of the New Testament, who experiences a conversion to Jesus and changes his life accordingly. According to the New Testament, Jesus appeared to Paul—revealed himself to him. Paul in Lawrence’s story also has revelations, but again in an ironic way, for the revelations this Paul receives are about race horses and money.
Metaphor
The child had never been to a race-meeting before, and his eyes were blue fire.
Comparison of the eyes to fire
It came whispering from the springs of the still-swaying rocking-horse, and even the horse, bending his wooden, champing head, heard it. The big doll, sitting so pink and smirking in her new pram, could hear it quite plainly, and seemed to be smirking all the more self-consciously because of it.
Comparison of the rocking horse and doll to living beings.
Oxymoron
It was a soundless noise, yet rushing and powerful.
Alliteration
And yet the voices in the house . . . simply trilled and screamed in a sort of ecstasy: "There must be more money!
His eyes blazed at her for one strange and senseless second, as he ceased urging his wooden horse.
Simile
He went to bed as right as a trivet.
The voices in the house suddenly went mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening.
Comparison of the voices to frogs.
He neither slept nor regained consciousness, and his eyes were like blue stones.
Comparison of the Paul's eyes to stones.
It is very obvious, the irony that rocking horse which brings him his "luck" is what brings him his death. Paul's death is as a result of negligence on his mother's part and on the part of his uncle, Oscar. Oscar had said "My God, Hester you're eighty thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad.". If Oscar had known that the little boy was "a poor devil of a son to the bad", he should have stopped Paul from riding the horse that kills. The description of his mother from the beginning of the story is being shown "‘She is a good mother. She adores her children.' only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so". Uncle Oscar also must have been busy enjoying the good luck the boy brings but refused to stop him. Paul dies at night probably believing he is lucky, but you and I know that the boy is not lucky after all.
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