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How Does Lawrence Use Symbols In The Rocking-Horse Winner

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In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” D.H Lawrence uses the symbol of the rocking horse to develop a theme that trying to make a greedy person happy by giving her more money is ultimately doomed to failure. A greedy person always wants more and more; therefore, there is no way for them to be satisfied. So, in the story the protagonist, Paul, is trying relentlessly to make his greedy mom love him. In his efforts, since he is just a child, he rides madly on his toy rocking horse until the name of the winning of he winning horse is revealed to him at the horse race, so his mother can finally have the money she need to be happy He is desperate to make money to send to her, however, in the end his efforts go unnoticed by his mom and ultimately …show more content…
It starts off as a christmas gift which then is later being used as an symbolic image for Pauls growing anxiety about money. In addition to Paul’s slight obsession with the rocking horse is considerably bizarre. For most, the rocking horse is normally ridden by younger kids; however, Paul is much older and continues to play with it. It is mentioned to him several times about how he is too old to still be playing with it. For instance,the mother says in the story, “Aren't you growing too big for a rocking-horse? You're not a very little boy any longer, you know”(Lawrence 5). However, Paul really didn’t seem fazed by the comments due to the fact that he is so set on trying to sway his mother’s affection through money. On the other hand, while trying to reach this goal from his mom is literally stuck on the rocking. A rocking horse stays in place. It doesn’t move as real horses do. However, it is ironic how he can predict the outcome of the moving horse that is actually going somewhere, while he is stuck on his little, ole horse. Therefore, it is evidenced that how madly Paul rides the horse shows that he can never win race since he is stuck in one place. However, you can tell that Paul only truly dreams of really riding with a real horse with his mother’s real love. For instance, critics contend the

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