THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER

The Rocking Horse Winner: Answers to Question One, Two, Four and the Major Long Answer
Assignment.
In The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence, the whispers of the house, There must be
more money! which was the cause of the greed and the dissatisfaction of the way of living of
his Mother. These whispers louder and louder the more he strives on the pursuit of wealth, thus
the turning point of the story that eventually took Pauls life. There is a consistent bible
references of avarice as the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). This reinforces itself as this
avarice distorts the innocence of Paul. These whispers caused Paul to long for a never ending
desire for the love of his Mother. This consistent greed for money to satisfy and to stop the
whispers of the house has stressed Paul and disarranged his mindset from an innocent young boy
to excessive gambler. As Pauls actions cause the house to whisper even louder The must be
more money! - More than ever! More than ever! and its just a never ending cycle that
eventually broke the child. In this world there is evil that comes up out of good intentions, and
there is good that comes up out of bad intentions.

My God, Hester, youre eighty-odd thousand to the good and poor devil of a son to the bad.
But, poor devil, poor devil, hes best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a
winner. This statement just shows the theme of the story (avarice, ignorance, and the flaws of
secrecy) that justified itself during the end. The actions of Basset and Uncle Oscar were a factor
of Pauls death. The religious acting of Basset and his secrecy towards the matter of Pauls
premonition ability has caused him to go in frantic for the search of for more money. How this
religious mindset has caused Paul his life, is a matter that needs to be taken more seriously and
might be discussed in length. To make sense of the statement; this story is somewhat a

THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER

metaphorical sense to religion that strayed away from the original teaching of the Bible. This is
due to the fact that D.H. Lawrences point-of-view of religious practice is sacrilege. As Uncle
Oscar joins their circle, Basset and Paul made him promise in Honour Blight also a symbolism
for religion since it also exchanged their vows to each other. The statement about Pauls
condition his eyes were like blue stones and his Mothers condition when she was sitting
beside Pauls bedside turned actually to stone is closely related to Dantes Inferno (Canto

VII), it states in the book that the 4th level of hell where the prodigals and avaricious will be;
Their punishment is to roll large stones, clashing in head-on collisions with the Avaricious who
are trying to go the opposite direction.

The action which Uncle Oscar led Paul to climb higher and Uncle Oscar gratified him for his
winnings or luck. Pauls self-righteous posturing for the love of his mother was an innocent
flame but was burnt with destructive elements. Since Paul never understood the concept of
gambling for money and has never learned to constitute whats wrong with what he was doing.
The only thought he ever had was he was a lucky person. The situation Paul was in
eventually cornered him and it was the cause of his demise. Even so, the bureaucratic elements
of the story never ceased, this traded a life for eighty-odd thousand. This grows the curious
question: Was Paul really lucky?

Dont they? Nobody at all? Does nobody know?

Perhaps God. But He never tells.

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QUESTION 3:

SLANGS

Im a lucky person.
..riding a winner?
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Filthy lucre
Honour Blight