Analysis of the Rocking Horse Winner Essay

A literary analysis of The Rocking Horse Winner by D H Lawrence put forwardnot infract to mention the strong metaphor of the chat up rocking cater itself. Other strong metaphors include the race horses and the estimation of gambling in general.. The image of a boy rocking himself to illness and death on a toy horse suggests a powerful and upsetting metaphor for a childs burning pipe dream and distress, and to understand the metaphor we must look more closely at the story itself.In The Rocking-Horse Winner, hapless story by D H Lawrence, a child gets the feeling that circumstances in his family be deteriorating financi everyy and feels utterly powerless to reform the situation. He sees the bitterness of his baffles discontent and tries to improve her lot, although she seems to pay him little regard. All her attention seems concentrated on a husband who, despite his efforts, burn down never provide enough for her insatiable appetite for material things. Horses in general, g ambling on their races and in particular, the rocking horse itself become metaphors for the childs ambition, and the driven quality of his determination to succeed at all costs.The child, Paul, decides that there will never be means to support his family unless he assumes some sort of support himself. Paul decides to resolve the financial crisis through luck, chance, fate and gambling on horses. He thinks that he can divine winning horses in races by riding his own toy rocking horse. The horse metaphors suggest the themes of ambition in life turning to a blinkered disregard for the costs and consequences in a narrow minded(p) area, a drive bordering on obsession.Either by luck or by judgement, Paul real starts to win money and hopes it will make his mother happy. What he doesnt realise is that she is the sort of psyche whose appetite will simply grow and whose discontent is of her own making. The contend for money just balloons place of control and family members start to put pressure on him. The strain of duty, loyalty, responsibility, guilt, repression and denial of affection and reward becomes so unbearable that he rides his rocking horse so madly that he gets sick and collapses as his chosen horse is about to win a famous race.D H Lawrences own relationship with his mother one of love, but also of control is relevant to the story too. In his drive to succeed, Paul echoes the need of the young Lawrence to please his own mother and of course, highlights another form of ambition, that of her hopes and dreams for a gifted young watchword in avoiding the pit life and aiming for something arguably higher and more academic. The horse metaphor it seems, has deep root in Lawrences own childhood.