Rocking Horse Winner

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“The Rocking Horse Winner” is a story about a boy that has a gift for picking the winning horses in the horse races to earn money for to prove to his mother that he isn’t unlucky. “The Rocking Horse Winner” shows feminist criticism all throughout the whole story. The name of the mother of the boy is Hester. The author portrays the mother as the villain, a hateful character with no obligation to honest standards. This wicked mother figure will eventually be the “demolisher” by turning her husband away and, basically, killing her young son, Paul. The mother isn’t only obsessed with money but whenever she gets any money she uses it very unwisely. For example; when she receives the five thousand pounds she stated that she needed to pay off the…show more content…
I’m lucky,” she responded with, “no, you never did.” Even though we all know that Paul did tell her that he was lucky earlier in the story. The reason that she does not remember him saying that is because she has put forth no effort into paying attention to Paul. The earlier conversation that Paul tries to have with his mother is a large part of the story. Paul saw right through his mother’s cold heart and tried his best to reach out and connect to his mother for a short time, but even that did not faze her. “Well- I suppose,” she said slowly and bitterly, “it’s because your father has no luck.” Imagine what impact that conversation would have on a little boy. The only thing we as readers can feel towards the little boy is empathy for the confusion the mother has caused little boy. He has the understanding that luck is money. Throughout this whole conversation that takes place Hester is speaking to him in a bitter and cold voice as if it would not confuse him even more. So after that point in the story Paul tries to use his luck to get money for his mother, so that maybe, just maybe, she might show a little love and compassion to him. He just wanted to have a loving mother figure that would love him more than the light of day. Unfortunately he finds out that his mother is almost identical to a disease that destroys things that give her the means of “life”. The fact that she doesn’t recall the conversation between her…show more content…
All of us as an audience realize that Hester probably won’t even flinch knowing that her son has just died, but instead will be out in town purchasing the next big thing, blowing through the financial cushion that her son just provided her before his unfortunate death, at record speeds. The details that the author uses to portray the mother are cold, wasteful, and shallow. The author evens out the playing field by creating very attractive and likable male characters. For example one of the men that the author created is Basset. Basset is the only adult that actually shows Paul the most serious respect. It seems very obvious that the evil of the mother has haunted the house, hence the constant whispering. The house holds the mother’s selfishness and the very need of the next newest and biggest thing possible. The whispers frighten Paul horribly which in turn cause him to try to prove to his mother that he has luck, and hopes that once he proves that to his mother the whispers would finally quit bothering

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