Structure and Meaning in D.H.Lawrence's Short Story The Rocking Horse Winner

The Rocking Horse Winner displays a story about a young boy who desperately wanted to make enough money to satisfy his mother’s desire for wealth, and finally sacrificed his life in picking the winner in horse races to fill in the hole of her mother’s greediness. The Rocking-Horse Winner is a sardonic tale employing devices of the fairy tale and a mockingly detached tone to teach the value of love and the dangers of money. Itshows Lawrence’s distain for conspicuous consumption, crass materialism,and an emotionally distant style of parenting during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This paper analyzes the tale from a structural perspective. Through a structural exploration in personality, personal relationships, and a grand opposing framework, this paper reveals the plot development and the theme.