Tiffany Markovich

9/16/22

IB English p.3

Word Count: 241

“The Rocking-Horse Winner”(8-10 sentences)

From the opening passage of “ The Rocking-Horse Winner”, Lawrence describes the image of
Paul’s mother as a deeply discontent woman driven by an insatiable yearning for money and
success. Initially, we are fooled by the mother from her antagonistic actions toward her family,
in a way that everyone believes “she is such a good mother” (Lawrence, 543) and “adores her
children” (Lawrence, 543). This illustrates that Paul’s mother endeavors more work into the
artificial image of love in her family than nurturing actual love for them. Lawrence sets the tone
for this materialistic story by portraying a household lacking love, thus only monetary interest
could perhaps ease the misery. Yet in the end, however, money is scarcely the mitigation Paul’s
mother expects it to be. She experiences this when her son fell from his rocking-horse, it was at
that moment she felt something she hadn't felt before “flooding upon her” (Lawrence, 554) in
an instinct. From her perspective, seeing her son in such a state seems to have opened her eyes
to see what’s right in front of her, not just on the singular focus of wealth. Lawrence highlights
that love sometimes can outwardly rise even in the most cold-hearted of people in particular
happenings. Even though Paul's mother’s unanticipated extent of love is revealed to us in the
end, it’s a little too late.