The Rocking-Horse Winner By D. H. Lawrence

Abstract
        Paul is a child of an unlucky and greedy family. His mother and father are both big spenders, but they don't have the money to pay their debt. Paul and his sisters notice that the house is whispering, " There must be more money" this bothers Paul so he decides to do something about it. He begins gambling  on horse races, which he wins because of his rocking horse. He takes his winnings and gives some to his mother to make the house shut up, but it only becomes louder. Finally Paul becomes weak and is able to make one last bet in which he wins a lot of money for his family.




Journal
         Master Paul was a child who had an illness. This wasn’t something that his family noticed, but it became apparent with time. Paul heard that his parents had no luck and he wanted so badly to find that luck so he searched for it himself. As he searched he found a rocking horse out of all the things in his house, and this had the answer. Why would Paul pick a horse? Why wouldn’t he pick something that could make him money like notebook and pencil?

 Paul was making sure he found luck for his mother because he loved her very much and wanted her to be impressed by him. From the theory of Sigmund Freud, Paul wanted to be better than his father. He wanted his mother to love him and not his father, so he went about this by trying to provide for his mother. He did this by betting on horse races with Bassett, the gardener and winning large amounts of money. Paul decided that he was going to give some of his money to his mother for her birthday. She gladly accepted it and asked if she could get the whole lump sum of five thousand pounds. Paul agree and Uncle Oscar told the lawyer that was all right.

Paul’s mother used the money to buy material things for herself, and never once stopped and thought about what her family needed. This made Paul angry and confused. The whole reason Paul was gambling was so the house would shut up. Paul’s id or basic needs drove him to want to gamble. He had to shut the house up because it kept whispering, “There must be more money!” This bothered Paul so he wanted to fix it and he thought he had. Paul was wrong about that the whispering only became louder. Paul couldn’t understand how his mother could be so selfish. Why couldn’t she make the house be quiet? What motivated her to be so selfish?

            As Paul tried harder and harder to win money, he was only losing it. He was struggling because he didn’t have his rocking horse anymore because he was too old for it his mother said. Paul demanded that it be put back in his room and his mother listened. This was the reason for his success in winning the bets. Paul’s ego kicking in, he wanted so badly to have luck he would do anything to get it. He rode his horse day and night trying to find the answer. He was mentally not going to be at rest until he found the winner of The Derby.

            Paul shows a strong Ego throughout the whole story. He wasn’t stopping for anything or anyone. He was driven by his Ego to find luck and make the house shut up. Paul’s Superego never really stopped him or was even apparent to him throughout this whole story. Finally, Paul’s Id was the whole drive behind everything he did, it was his instinct. He knew in his mind he had to help his mother and was going to do it in any possible way he could. He was driven so much to please his mother that it killed him.