Fiction Analysis
1. Title of Selection: The Rocking-Horse Winner
2. Author: D.H. Lawrence was born in England and wrote this story to demonstrate issues with men and women that are in relationships.
3. Theme: The main theme that is being expressed throughout the short story is that absolute power corrupts humans. The little boy, Paul, had the power to guess who would win the next horse race and it is because of this, he was able to gain lots of money. It would only after he had gained all this money that he began to realize that this was not the right thing to be done.
4. Summary of the Selection: The story begins with the narration of Paul’s mom. She is a beautiful woman with many features, yet she does not have any luck. The reason why she had no luck was because she married someone who was unlucky. It was because of this unluckiness that she was unable to bring in a sufficient source of income to tend to her children. Paul then began to realize that he himself had luck, and that the more he rode on a horse of his, the more he was able to guess which horse would win the next derby or race. As time progressed in the novel, he began to become unlucky and this unluckiness was eating him alive. Soon he was barley able to function or better yet even think. As the story comes to an end he dies because of uncertainty.
5. Figurative Language:
Personification and Smile: “ And then the house whispers at you like people laughing behind your back” (pg 314)
Simile: “The voices in the house suddenly went mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening. (pg 315)
Alliteration: And yet the voices in the house . . . simply trilled and screamed in a sort of ecstasy: “There must be more money!”

6. Elements of Fiction •Characters: - Protagonist— Paul - Antagonist—The House and the Family’s Bad Luck - Other significant characters: Paul’s mom Hester, Paul’s Father, Bassett, Oscar Creswell, Miss Wilmot •Setting: - The Story takes in in England shortly after the First World War. •Point of View: The story is told from an omniscient third-person point of view so that the author can show the thoughts of the characters. •Symbols: A major symbol that exists throughout the story is the house. It represents recurring problems that we all face in life. •Conflicts: Some of the conflicts it the novel are:
Man vs. Self: This is shown with the Paul’s mother and father who have zero lucky; therefore, they struggle to make it through life.
Man vs. Man: Paul has this conflict with himself because he has a gambling problem that has taken over his life and his mentality. •Foreshadowing: This happens in the novel when the mother tells Paul “My family has been a gambling family, and you wont know it till you grown up how much damage it has done” (pg. 316) •Satire: The whole story is told from a satirical point of view because the little boy spend the whole story trying to bring money into his mother hands because he knows she is struggling, but in the end the boy dies from trying to help his mother out. •Irony: The irony in the short story exist when Paul’s mom appears to love her children, and in fact everyone else says of her she is a very good mother because she “adores” her children, but in fact, her heart was “a hard little place” that was incapable of loving anyone and this also could be the cause of her son’s death. She was so quick to get the money she did not even question where it was from.
7. Personal Reaction: I enjoyed reading the rocking horse because there was so much to take away. One thing that I took away from it is that like it is said in the Spiderman movies “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.” The little boy had the power to guess who would win the race, but soon he let that power consume him. I think that the story could have been cut down a bit because the point that was being made felt a little stretched but in the end it was a story with a good lesson.