Short Fiction Assignment: The Rockinghorse Winner by D.H. Lawrence

Theme Analysis and Connections in The Rockinghorse Winner by D.H. Lawrence

As a society, our dreams and aspirations are usually tied with making more money. Climbing up the social ladder means having more money to spend on frivolous items, having a large house, and brand new cars. This connection can be made as one of the themes in The Rockinghorse Winner, one of the strongest themes in the short story has to deal with the need and want for more money. As the mother and father think that money is the only thing to make you completely happy, and the only thing that is needed in life, the one thing that truly matters however is love and the love they have within their family. This idea of love is destroyed and broken down by the desire for money and social status. The young boy, Paul, only desires to be loved by his mother, the woman who gave birth to him, but he feels like he can not achieve that with money and social status overpowering him. Ultimately Paul finds himself yearning for his mother's love and begins gambling by predicting who can win in horse races to get money to his mother. This book also has a theme of neglect; the mother neglecting Paul, which in turn makes Paul want his mother's love even more. This one theme spirals into what is similar in Oedipus, the almost infatuation and love for the mother and wanting to get rid of the father figure. In The Rockinghorse Winner, the symbol of the rockinghorse suggests that it is tied to isolation and Paul's sexual desires. He isn't given the opportunity to explore love or lust outside of the home even though on the cusp of adolescence that is what he needs to experiment with the most.