Paul experiences a loss of innocence after facing the reality that his family does not have enough money. The house constantly whispers “there must be more money” so he goes in search of an answer. His youth dies right at the point when his mother tells him that she is not lucky and neither is his father. Then Paul decides that if his mother is not lucky, then he will try to be lucky for her. Some may say this is a reflection of the Oedipus complex, when a child develops feelings for the parent of the opposite sex. However in this case, Paul feels it is his responsibility to help out the family. This could possibly be out of guilt, but is done more out of frustration to get rid of the voices he hears and is a bridge in the death and rebirth cycle.

Off to his rocking horse he goes, “charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily” (227). Pau

l claims he can “get there” on his rocking horse. Although Lawrence never defines “there”, one can assume “there” is when the name of the winning horse comes to him. But Paul cannot always “get there”. Nonetheless he is reborn again when he wins five thousand pounds and gives it to his mother. Paul, disappointed after he gives her the money because of her necessity to appear high in society, hears the house whisper even more fiercely. Soon after, he goes through a losing streak in which he dies again.

“My God Hester, you’re eighty thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But poor devil, poor devil, he’s best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking-horse to find a winner” (235) is the epitome of the story. As the son dies, the mother is reborn again with the money she hasn’t had since she married her husband. Even though she lost her son, perhaps the uncle is right, Paul is better off dead because he drove himself to the breaking point by obsessively riding his rocking horse to find a winner.

After that Paul throws himself into his studies, trying to ignore the voices. He loses two races in a row and “[becomes] wild-eyed and strange, as if something [is] going to explode in him” (232). The mother notices the change in him and insi

Some topics in this essay:
Horse Winner”, God Hester, Derby Paul, , thousand pounds, rocking horse, death rebirth, eighty thousand, poor devil, eighty thousand pounds, won eighty thousand, dies mother, mother paul, five thousand, mother lucky, married husband, five thousand pounds,