The Rocking Horse Winner Materialism Essay
Materialism over Motherhood The short story, “The Rocking - Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence elaborates on the important role that wealth plays not only in an individual’s lifestyle, but also their happiness. Paul, a young boy seeking the love of his materialistic minded mother feels a deep obligation to fulfill his mother’s happiness, a place where his father has failed. Through a Freudian approach, one is able to describe Paul’s actions of sexually desiring his mother and ultimately replacing the role of his father as the Oedipus complex .The loving relationship that Paul seeks to instill with his mother becomes one that is only one-sided because, “She herself knew that at the centre of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel
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This ultimately results in not only a faster development rate into adolescence, but also his sexual desires that form part of this stage. In Freudian psychology riding a full grown horse is a symbolic representation of the act of sex, but instead Paul rides a wooden rocking horse. His sisters describe a situation in which, “He would sit on his big rocking horse, charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily” (Lawrence 21). Paul is not sexually ready for pre-adolescence, a symbol most depicted in Freudian psychology as a full grown horse, so he rides a wooden rocking horse in order to compensate for his interrupted sexual development into pre-adolescence. By emphasising that Paul’s rides a wooden horse instead of a full grown horse, Lawrence is able to convince readers that he is not mentally ready to take the role of a pre-adolescent and that, “The horse could take him to where there was luck, if only he forced it” (Lawrence 22). Paul action of forcing the horse to take him where he wants to go, or fulfilling his mother’s materialistic views becomes one that is forced or which angers him because he does not have the mental capability of handling this type of stress. This allows for a continuous decline in his mental health, which will ultimately be the cause of his
This ultimately results in not only a faster development rate into adolescence, but also his sexual desires that form part of this stage. In Freudian psychology riding a full grown horse is a symbolic representation of the act of sex, but instead Paul rides a wooden rocking horse. His sisters describe a situation in which, “He would sit on his big rocking horse, charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily” (Lawrence 21). Paul is not sexually ready for pre-adolescence, a symbol most depicted in Freudian psychology as a full grown horse, so he rides a wooden rocking horse in order to compensate for his interrupted sexual development into pre-adolescence. By emphasising that Paul’s rides a wooden horse instead of a full grown horse, Lawrence is able to convince readers that he is not mentally ready to take the role of a pre-adolescent and that, “The horse could take him to where there was luck, if only he forced it” (Lawrence 22). Paul action of forcing the horse to take him where he wants to go, or fulfilling his mother’s materialistic views becomes one that is forced or which angers him because he does not have the mental capability of handling this type of stress. This allows for a continuous decline in his mental health, which will ultimately be the cause of his