The Rocking-Horse Winner

This short story by D. H. Lawrence presents a variety of themes that reflect the society of that time. However, the one which I think is the main one is ambition. People in this not-ending searching for more fame, money, truth, knowledge and so on forget about the real things that matter, for example health and love. At the end of the day it would not matter how much money a person has if he/she is with a terminal disease or if is lonely in a huge mansion. It is shocking how life can pass in front of our eyes and nobody see it until is too late, fortunately this is just a generalization.

There are clear examples in the story that reflect how strong the desperation for more was in Paul’s family. One is the constant whispering that children heard all the time “there must be more money”. The second one and more impressive was when the mother received the letter for the layer telling her that she will receive one thousand pound per birthday for 5 years. Instead of being happy, she got serious and went straight to the lawyer’s office to ask for all the money at once. What happened with that money, D.H.Lawrence left it to our imagination.

Ambition can destroy people’s life and it does respect age and condition. For example, Paul died trying to get luck for his family. Although, he was naïve in believing that luck would fix the problem in his family. In that sense, this story is similar to the one by Graham Greene “The Japanese gentlemen” because the lady who pursued a writer carrier believed of everything her publisher told her, like that her novel would be a success.

On the other hand, a big difference is how the stories are narrated. In the Japanese gentleman the author was analyzing the different situations that occurred in the restaurant. But in the rocking-horse winner, the author was getting into characters mind and thoughts, therefore it was easier to understood why some situation, like the conversation about the unlucky sense in the family that the mother had with boy Paul, happened in certain moments.

However, both stories have the strong presence of ambition and keeping appearance at all costs.