What does it mean to be lucky? Or, what does it mean to be successful? How does money corrupt those terms? The beginning of "The Rocking Horse Winner" gives the reader a sense of fantasy. As a general rule, children love fairy tales. We grow up reading stories like Little Red Riding Hood or watching Disney remakes of old classics. Instantly, the reader has a sense of a timeless, of an extraordinary illusionary reality. D.H. Lawrence progresses on with this feeling when the narrator tells us of his beautiful woman and her feelings towards her children: "Only she herself knew that at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody" (Lawrence 254). The narrator describes a tale of a woman unable to love her own children who is obsessed with money. The house the family lives in is always filled with a whisper: "There must be more money" (Lawrence 255). This whisper is what leads to Paul becoming obsessed with money and luck like his mother. The dream-like tone that fills the story continues with the idea of the rocking horse helping Paul to find the winners of the races. In the end, Paul senselessly drives himself to an untimely death from searching for the winner of the Derby through the night on his rocking horse. The moral of this story is a warning against being obsessed with money and luck, for the pursuit of these two things may kill one in the end.
             Our parents, especially at a young age, are the most influential people in our lives, so in order to understand Paul, one must look at his mother and father. The story actually begins with the discussion of his mother, saying that she had the best opportunities in life, yet she had no luck. Also, it states: "She married for love, and that love turned to dust: (Lawrence 254). The previous quotation formed here is very important because, although readers never find out exactly why, they acknowledge the absence of any reaming love in the ...