There are many factors that make up a short story. These same factors can also be used to point out the many themes of short stories. D. H. Lawrence’s story, The Rocking- Horse Winner, is about a family who feels they are very unlucky. The young boy, Paul, goes on a pursuit to find luck and get money for his mother which ultimately leads to family destruction. Lawrence’s story contains many literary elements that help reveal the themes of the story, such as, luck, greed and sacrifice. For each of these literary elements, there is a character from the story who best represents them. The first element, luck, is best represented by the young boy Paul. The story is based off of him trying to find luck since his mother and father have none. “He went off by himself, vaguely, in a childish way, seeking for the clue to luck” (152). He does end up finding luck. The second element, greed, is best represented by Paul’s mother. She feels she has no luck and she should have married for money not love. Her greed is what pushed Paul to search for luck. The last element, sacrifice, is represents well by …show more content…
At the beginning of the story, Paul’s mother explains to him that they are poor due to bad luck, “it’s because your father has no luck” (151). Because of this, Paul goes on a search for said luck. A theme that is connected to this literary element is that materialism is not the most important thing in life. Paul develops over the story due to this. He is a dynamic character who goes through changes, like, becoming more and more obsessed with earning money for his unlucky mother. These changes sometimes get suspenseful, “Wildly the horse careered, the waving dark hair of the boy tossed, his eyes had a glare in them. The little girls dared not speak to him” (152). This section is referring to Paul’s maturing as a man, in ways such as, masturbation. Most of the story is based on his growing