Design in D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner”
... well aware of this drastic problem: "The children could hear it all the time, though nobody said it aloud"(Lawrence 114). The phrase is only repeated towards the beginning of the story, because as it hits a crucial turning point, it is then obvious that Paul, the main child, understands this. In fact, he later makes a link between money, luck and love, which comes up subtly in a conversation he has with his mother. The word luck is well used and repeated throughout the story because this is a vital part of the mother-son connection. The mother brings up the term luck as she bitterly attempts to ex-plain to her son the reason why they are too unfortunate to possess their own car: "it's because your father has no luck"(Lawrence 114). At this precise moment, it is clear that the son compre-hends luck as being equivalent to money, even after asking his mother about this and being an-swered: "It's what causes you to have money. If you're lucky, you have money"(Lawrence 114). Within the same conversation, the mother answers to his question of herself, if she’s lucky, by putting the blame on her husband: "I can't be, if I married an unlucky husband. … I used to think I was, before I married. Now I think I am very unlucky indeed"(Lawrence 115). It is straight-forward here that Paul has made the fundamental connection in his mind between luck, which has been brilliantly repeated to show this, and love by responding stoutly: "I'm a lucky per-son"(Lawrence 115) and when he saw that she didn't believe him, this angered him. He wanted to win his mother's love by finding luck: "He went off by himself … seeking for the clue to 'luck'"(Lawrence 115). Paul searched for clues forcing his rocking horse to where there is luck. The rocking horse was a gift originally given to Paul at Christmas by his parents, but it is much more meaningful then just a wooden toy. This horse represents the journey this young child takes to reach the love of his mother, by finding luck. He does everything he can to find luck, we see this when he is wildly and furiously riding his horse and saying: "Now, take me to where there is luck! Now take me!"(Lawrence 115). Eventually he does get to where there is luck, at this point he is certain that he knows which horse is winner of the race, which he attends with his uncle and his gardener, and it always brings money. Obviously since metaphorically a rocking horse doesn't lead anywhere, it’s a dead end to his initial goal, his mother's love. One night, as Paul was getting very ill, his mother caught him at the end of one of his furious rides. After questioning him on what he was doing, he screamed unconsciously: "Malabar! It's Mala-bar! … I know! It's Malabar!"(Lawrence 123). Paul didn't regain consciousness until his uncle's gardener, Bassett, came into his hospital room and told him that they had made a huge win on the horse winner, Malabar. Paul is glad to have finally found the love of his mother through this eighty-thousand dollar win, he tells her: "I ne...