R | Writing | Essays | The Rocking-Horse Winner

Written on the short story "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence.

In his short story "The Rocking Horse Winner," D.H. Lawrence emphasizes how lack of good parenting and materialism can destroy the meaning of life. This is demonstrated when Paul, the son of an unlucky mother, rides his rocking horse until he knows the winner of the horse derby.

The story begins when Paul asks his mother why she thinks she's unlucky. She refuses to say anything, and Paul wanders off on his own to find a place with luck so he may make his mother lucky again. He climbs atop his rocking horse and begins to rock back and forth feverously, yelling at it until it takes him to where he wants to go, egged on by the eerie unspoken phrase of "There must be more money!" which seems to float around the house. When he finally arrives, Paul knows the name of the horse that will win the derby race. He uses this strange talent to win many bets in gambling, and he funnels the money anonymously to his mother. When his mother discovers that someone has been feeding them large sums of money, her expensive tastes instantly become even more expensive and costly. As she spends Paul's money on material items, the voices filling the house become more stern and desperate, "There MUST be more money!"

Anxious to make the voices stop, Paul continues to ride his horse and win larger sums of money to feed the voices, which actually symbolize his mother's materialism. As Paul keeps riding his horse, he begins to grow up until he is finally too big to ride his horse any longer. When Paul stops riding his horse, his "luck" changes, and the family falls into financial disaster once again. One night, Paul decides that he can no longer stand it, he must be lucky again. He climbs into his rocking horse and rides it back and forth, hard and fast until he finally shouts out the name of the winning horse and collapses. In the final hours of Paul's life, he is not reminiscing about the years he's spend alive; he's tossing in his bed, his mind undoubtedly filled with the voices saying, "There must be more money!" He is unable to take his mind from his gambling habit, and dies later in the night.

Paul's illness and eventual death from riding the rocking horse is ironic. We know that Paul's father also has a problem with gambling, and we also know that Paul's mother considered herself lucky until she married Paul's father and become an indirect victim of his gambling. Paul's addiction to gambling in order to feed his mother's materialism deemed him unlucky, even as he was winning bet after bet and thinking of himself as "lucky."

The lack of good parenting and love Paul's mother exhibited to her son and her greed for money and expensive things, aided in the corruption and demise of her son. Paul eventually became so caught up in the idea of being lucky and making the strange voices filling the house so away, that he became victim to his own habit. He was feeling lucky when in fact, as he was growing out of his rocking horse, he was actually becoming unlucky. As a result, he did not appreciate his life, only his "lucky" talent to win money. This demonstrates the effect that D.H. Lawrence is trying to emphasize: lack of good parenting and materialism can destroy the meaning of life.