Notes and thoughts

[British Book Centre]

The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H Laurence was read and discussed at our library as part of the Reading Time sessions.
Here are a few notes that we’ve made from this session, trying to make a summary of the most valuable comments about the characters and the story itself. We'll appreciate if you share your thoughts and comments here or on our blog: http://britishbookcentre.wordpress.co...
SPOILER ALERT: contains some spoilers.

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Whether the main character, a young boy named Paul, is indeed psychic and can foretell the outcome of horse races, is open to the reader’s interpretation. Paul’s age is never mentioned in the story, but from the fact that he is about to attend Eaton we can figure out that he is almost 13. So he is indeed a little bit old for a rocking horse.

The fact that the boy is mentally disturbed could be a result of his mother’s mental instability and her spending habits. If he had a kind and loving mother, he’d probably be ok.

Paul’s mother seems to have other priorities than her family. Yet she is the dominant personality in the family and thinks that they are superior to everyone in the neighbourhood. She cares for social standing and material things. Her style of living and her stylish goals seem to consume her. Her sense of values is distorted.
Right from the first paragraph we can see that the children knew their mother did not love them.

The father isn’t important in the story at all. Or, in a way, it is his absence that is important. He could have changed the whole story had he been more involved with his son’s life.

Bassett, the gardener, seems to be the most prominent male influence in Paul’s life, with his father being absent. Basset seems to offset all this anxiety and lack of attention for Paul with all that horse racing.
One question that the reader might ask is: If Bassett had made all this money with the help of Paul, why did he continue to be a gardener? Did he really have sincere feelings for the boy, or was it simply that the ‘cash cow’ would die if he had lost access to it?.. In any case Basset seems to be a much larger character than he is expressed in the story.

This short story has both a fable and a fantasy esement to it. Fables have morals, so maybe this story has one too?.. One possible purpose to which it could be written is to chastise people for the practice of turning children over to a nanny or an entire household of servants, which was a common practice in upper-middle class families in 20th century Britain. Maybe it is D. H. Laurence’s way of showing that it is a terrible way for children to grow up without the direct contact with their parents.

The rocking horse is surely a very powerful image of madness: moving back and forth but not actually getting anywhere.

[Amanda]

British Book Centre wrote: " If he had a kind and loving mother, he’d probably be ok.

[The father] could have changed the whole story had he been more involved with his son’s life.

One possible purpose to which it could be written is to chastise people for the practice of turning children over to a nanny or an entire household of servants"

So, basically, it is all the woman's fault and everything happened because a man didn't show up to save the day.

And the moral is about how women should raise their kids.

I don't think so.

I believe there is a moral in this story, but for me, it is a cautionary tale about inverted priorities, living of appearances, and yes, how it can affect kids.

But both mother and father are to blame for his son's fate... if we believe that he wasn't a psychic at all.

[Astha]

The parents are definitely to blame for whatever helped develop the boy's consistent state of mind. But otherwise, he definitely had some psychic powers to have come up with such precise premonitions!

Parents sure should be more involved with their children. Even if he was a psychic, he wouldn't have died of it if wasn't for the constant neglect of the parents.

[Geoffrey]

A rocking horse that doesn't go anywhere is a metaphor for the parents' lifestyle. The parents are chronically upward mobile with no saving graces, yet their social progress is stagnant as is their material well being. It's been years since I read the story, twice in fact, and was overwhelmed by its poignancy.

And of course the title was ironically chosen.It's rider's demise underscores the tragedy uncaring parents have on their children's emotional well-being.

[Bborntbb]

This is a story that can be interpreted in many ways, and surely Freud would have had a thing or two to say about it, but I'll leave him outside the door, since my knowledge on both him and psychoanalysis is rather sparse.
The main theme of the story is very clearly greed, as well as how things which happen in a family can affect children tremendously, even though they are left unsaid, and possibly even more so.
Although the mother claims to be unlucky, because she married the wrong man, the household seems to be pretty well off. The children have a nursery with a nurse/nanny, and the fact that the family has a hired gardener makes this even more apparent. In a way, this means that all the whispers about the need for more money stems more from a sense of greed and dissatisfaction, than from any actual poverty.
The mother leaves Paul with the impression that happiness and financial gain can be achieved only via luck, and that luck is something you are dealt and have no power over. Paul, though, refuses to be unlucky and wants to help the mother. The way he goes about this is also connected to luck, namely horse racing, but the way Paul plays the game is very different from just any random game of luck. He gives everything he has in him to reach his goal, and he succeeds, but at the cost of his life. So in the end Paul proves his mother wrong, since she turns out the be the one who is dealt with a lucky hand, while Paul showed that one can achieve something on one's own.