The Symbolism in the Rocking-horse Winner
A Brief Summary
The Rocking-Horse Winner\a short story by D. H. Lawrence which was first published in July 1926 and then subsequently appeared in the first volume of Lawrence's collected short stories.
The story tells a young boy who notices that his mother doesn’t love him and his sisters, even though she “adores” them. Her mother becomes “dissatisfied with her marriage” when she finds that her husband is not lucky and doesn't make enough money. What’s worse, there is always an inexistent sound asking for more money in their house. When he receives a rocking horse for Christmas, he rides it often and comes to find that he can predict what horse is going to win the next big horse race. In order to show his mother that he has the love which his father lacks and plead love from his mother , he rides horse frenziedly and finally falls down and dead.
The Symbolism in the Rocking-horse Winner
The symbol in this short story is Paul’s horse , which thrusts all plots from beginning to end ,and also , is the direct and obvious cause which leads to Paul’s tragedy death. With a deep reading of story, I gain more details and profound philosophy from the horse.
Almost every kid has a cherished toy, maybe a jigsaw, a doll, or a Christmas bell. As their favorite and most unforgettable toy, it maybe an important part in their childhood and constitutes their simple and credulous memory. As a toy received in Christmas, this horse should have brought real luck and happiness to Paul, and should have symbolized kid’s innocence and their enjoyment. But ironically, Paul is killed by his horse which should have accompanied him for his carefree childhood. It’s so controversial that I want to make a bold conjuncture that maybe Paul’s sisters would lose their innocent life in the same way, perhaps because of their precious dolls. Here DH Laurence made a bold and even somewhat ridiculous contradiction between kid’s beloved toys and their desperate death to imply an irony of our society.
A real horse can run and take jockeys to any where they want and is a symbol of freedom and passion of life. But the one Paul has is a wooden horse, which means no matter how hard he tries to ride, he can not move and leave the gloom house he lives .He stays there and is drowned in the swamp of adult’s endless lust for money .The death of Paul indicates that human’ desire for wealth may destroy themselves and it is meaningless at all!
Finally, I want to make a compares between Paul’s mother, father and uncle with horse to illustrate that there are similarities among them. All of them are essential elements in Paul’s life, all of them are imitate friends
or soul mates of Paul. However, they all betray Paul and are the murders of Paul. Paul pleads mother for love, rides horse for clues; mother ignores Paul’s eagerness for love, horse takes his life away cruelly, and it is mother’s vanity and desire for material life that pushes him to death.
1木马作为孩子的玩具，充满童趣，是天真无邪的象征，无比纯洁，本可以陪伴孩子度过完美的童年。就像女孩子的布娃娃一样，木马作为男孩子的玩具，是儿时回忆的象征。在保罗死在自己的玩具上后，谁又敢完全肯定他的妹妹不会死在布娃娃的手下呢？
2 木马不像草原上的马，可以跑动起来，带着人走向远方去追求梦想和自由。即使在拼命地骑木马，仍然是在原地做无用功徘徊，从侧面说明了追求欲望这本身就是无实际意义，金钱本身不仅不会使让人的生命更有价值，相反，无尽的欲望反而会让人陷入绝望的沼泽。
3木马与母亲：保罗拼命的鞭打木马，希望木马给自己灵感，而木马却将他推向死亡；保罗祈求妈妈给他一些爱，而正是妈妈对无休止的欲望害了保罗。