Slide 1: Introduction

 Presenter 1 introduces title, author, publication date, setting, characters

 Presenter 1 indicates that D. H. Lawrence wrote the story in omniscient third-person
point of view, enabling him to reveal the thoughts of the characters
 Paul's mother only made several hundreds, and she was again dissatisfied. She so
wanted to be first in something, and she did not succeed, even in making sketches for
drapery advertisements.
 His mother had sudden strange seizures of uneasiness about him. Sometimes, for
half an hour, she would feel a sudden anxiety about him that was almost anguish. She
wanted to rush to him at once, and know he was safe.
 She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her , and she could not
love them. They looked at her coldly, as if they were finding fault with her. And
hurriedly she felt she must cover up some fault in herself.
 Presenter 1 provides story summary

Slide 2: Establishing Context

 Presenter 2 discusses post-WWI social impacts on middle class
 Details Paul's household financial situation
Slide 3: Mother's Mindset
 Presenter 2 analyzes Hester's obsession with money and luck
 Faulty Sense of Values:
 Whenever money becomes available, she spends beyond her means
 Regard servants and a nurse as objects for display, like the furnishings in the
home
 Hester's spending and indebtedness create anxiety that haunts the house
and personifies itself by repeatedly whispering the phrase: "There must be
more money."
 Her answer for what is luck from her son "It's what causes you to have money. If
you're lucky you have money. That's why it's better to be born lucky than rich.
If you're rich, you may lose your money. But if you're lucky, you will always get
more money."
 Paul then "inherits" her obsession
 He want to win money to prove that he has the luck that his father lacks

Question: When Paul's mother calls home from the party to ask Miss Wilmot whether
Paul is all right, is she motivated by guilt - and perhaps fear of being viewed as a bad
mother - for leaving him at home? Or is she genuinely concerned about his welfare?
Answer: She is neither a good wife nor a good mother. She just want to know
the God’s name.
 Oxymoron (phép nghịch hợp)
It was a soundless noise, yet rushing and powerful.
 meaning:...........................

Slide 4: Paul's Discovery

 Presenter 3 explains how Paul realized horse's predictive power
 Paul rides his rocking horse at great speed. In a moment of trance, he name of the
winning horse gets revealed. This is how Paul seeks his luck. => very much like the
magic seen in a fairy tale => Supernatural Element
 Significance as way for Paul to help mother
 His winnings will free his mother from a great monster, indebtedness, that consumes
all of her attention. Once free, she will be able to turn her attention to Paul and give
him the greatest prize of all: love. (his main purpose because he lacks of adoration)
 Conflict
 Between Paul and the voices:
Paul is besieged by the whispers of the house and attempts to combat them by
supplementing his mother income with his race winnings
 Question: Are the house voices real? Or does Paul hear them because he is mentally
disturbed?
Answer: ……………………………..
 Anaphora (điệp cấu trúc)
“Behind the shining modern rocking-horse, behind the smart doll's
house, a voice would start whispering: "There must be more money! There
must be more money!"
=> meaning:…………………………………………………………….
Slide 5: Rocking Horse Symbolism
 Presenter 3 discusses symbolism of materialism obsession
It is another expensive toy that the family cannot afford. Hester’s priority is filling her
house with expensive items to look better than her neighbors. Lawrence uses the rocking
horse as a symbol of the dangers of chasing wealth. The family lives in constant anxiety
of lack of money, but they rarely talk of it. Only a voice whispers: “There must be more
money!”. It is another symbol of the dangers of materialism and an obsession with
money.
 Paul's gift shown as conduit for unintended consequences
- Paul receives a rocking horse for Christmas
- Paul rides his rocking horse like a knight on a quest.
- To seek his mother’s approval and affection
- Consequences: falling action
 Paul remains ill through the day of the Derby: three days of the illness
 He dies the next night.
 Alliteration (phép điệp âm)
“And yet the voices in the house…simply trilled and screamed in a sort of ecstasy:
"There must be more money!”
His eyes blazed at her for one strange and senseless second, as he ceased urging
his wooden horse.
 Simile (phép so sánh)
 He neither slept nor regained consciousness, and his eyes were like
blue stones.
 Comparison of the Paul's eyes to stones
Slide 6: Paul's Declining Health (Climax occurs when Paul falls off his rocking horse
after suffering a seizure that leads to his death)
 Presenter 4 indicates Paul’s age: Knowing Paul's age is important, in as much as it
can suggest the state of his mind at the end of the story.
- Generally, such Rocking horse as a gift is appropriate only for a child between ages
four and eight
- If he is thirteen or about to turn thirteen, when he suffers a seizure and falls off his
rocking horse, one may speculate that he suffers from stunted maturity and
perhaps a psychological disorder => alters his perception of reality.
 Presenter 3 describes stresses on Paul and psychic toll:
- When he discovers that the five thousand pounds he sets aside for his mother is not
enough to achieve his goals, he becomes obsessed with winning more. His mania
ultimately kills him.

Slide 7: Confiding in Uncle Oscar

 Presenter 4 examines Paul's bond with Uncle Oscar & Bassett
 Uncle Oscar: Paul’s uncle and his mother’s sister. He provides Paul the money that
the boy uses to make his first successful bet. While, Bassett is his family gardener.
He initiates Paul into the world of horse racing, and they becoming betting partners.
 Why he trusted them with his gift for betting? =>..................
 Uncle Oscar’s statement at last line, “ "My God, Hester, you're eighty-odd 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."
 Hester’s constant complaint that makes Paul try to get money by betting in horse races.
Finally, Paul makes huge money only at the cost of his life. The statement quoted is what
 Uncle Oscar tells his greedy sister Hester as he sees the dead boy. It signifies the
dangers of chasing wealth and obsession with money.

Slide 8: Paul's Final Prediction (Tragic Irony)

 Presenter 5 recaps his last attempt and tragic outcome: Paul picks the winning
horse in the Epsom Derby but loses his life. The fortune he had amassed,
eighty thousand pounds (the equivalent of millions of dollars today), thus
became his misfortune.
 Analyzes Uncle Oscar's ominous warning

Slide 9: Present 5 The author conveys inmost feelings of characters successfully by

nonverbal communication
 Nonverbal Communication (through the eyes) The characters don’t have many
conversations, they communicate with their eyes. Eyes become symbols of the
characters’ emotions.

1. The boy watched her [his mother] with unsure eyes.

2. Wildly the horse careered, the waving dark hair of the boy tossed, his eyes had a
strange glare in them.
3. But Paul only gave a blue glare from his big, rather close-set eyes.
4. "Well, I got there!" he announced fiercely, his blue eyes still flaring, and his sturdy
long legs straddling apart.
5. The boy gazed at his uncle from those big, hot, blue eyes, set rather close together.
6. The child had never been to a race-meeting before, and his eyes were blue fire.
7. The child, flushed and with eyes blazing, was curiously serene.
8. The boy watched him with big blue eyes, that had an uncanny cold fire in them, and
he said never a word.
9. He became wild-eyed and strange, as if something were going to explode in him.
10. "I've got to know for the Derby!" the child reiterated, his big blue eyes blazing with a
sort of madness.
11. But the child lifted his uncanny blue eyes.
12. His eyes blazed at her for one strange and senseless second, as he ceased urging
his wooden horse.
13. He neither slept nor regained consciousness, and his eyes were like blue stones.
D. H. Lawrence's attention to the eyes helps to convey the inmost feelings of
characters in some instances. In other instances, it enhances the mysterious and
sometimes unsettling atmosphere of the story by leaving open to question what a gaze or a
stare means. In addition, it correctly calls attention to the fact that a good deal of
communication between human beings is nonverbal and that glaring eyes, frowns, furrowed
brows, and shrugs can sometimes communicate more meaning than words.

 Some other figurative language

 Metaphor (phép ẩn dụ)

The child had never been to a race-meeting before, and his eyes were
blue fire.
 Comparison of the eyes to fire

It came whispering from the springs of the still-swaying rocking-horse,

and even the horse, bending his wooden, champing head, heard it. The
big doll, sitting so pink and smirking in her new pram, could hear it quite
 plainly, and seemed to be smirking all the more self-consciously
because of it.

 Comparison of the rocking horse and doll to living beings

 Simile (phép so sánh)

 The voices in the house suddenly went mad, like a chorus of frogs on a
spring evening.
 Comparison of the voices to frogs

Here is what Presenter 3 would say in their 7 minute presentation:

Hi everyone ,my name is Dinh. In this part, I will discuss Paul's discovery of
his unique gift and its implications.
First of all, I will introduce to Paul and how he discover the power. We learn
that his mother Hester feels unfulfilled in her life and marriage. Her
obsession with social status and money creates financial troubles at home.
She obsessed with luck. To help his mom, he start to find luck ( He went off
by himself, vaguely, in a childish way, seeking for the clue to 'luck'.)
He ignore everything including the other family member. From my
persepective, Paul is ambitious boy. Maybe he was affected by his mother
and other aspect. Luck come to him. I can temporarily call that it is luck.
Paul has his fateful experience (He sit on his big rocking-horse, charging
madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him
uneasily. Wildly the horse careered, the waving dark hair of the boy tossed,
his eyes had a strange glare in them. The little girls dared not speak to him.).
What we can see in this detail. Paul ride the horse with the crazy speed with
wawing dark hair, strange age. It is not only supernatural language, but also
describe the restlessness and hysteria inside him. The two words : "madly"
and "frenzy" show can illustrate for this opinion. You know, he can not
manage his emotion. He must endure the pressrure to bring the money for
family. He pay a lot to Paul suddenly know the name of a winning racehorse
in a trance-like state. In other words, he had to pay a high price
( Psychology, childhood) to buy luck. He can not play normally like his sister.
He must ride a horse with under pressure. I believe that the most important
motivation is the love from his mother.
To continue, I will talk about his friend ( the rocking horse). About this
friend, it bring money for him through horse betting. It will talk to him
which horse will win. The horse is the hope for him. From my point of view,
the horse represent his hope for freedom, power and control in a world
where he feels powerless. With no ability to change their home situation,
the horse becomes an outlet for Paul's built-up stresses and emotions. He
know that he will be the only person can take care of this family because he
is the only son in the house. The burden was heavy in his shoulder. So the
horse become the key for solve this stress. In the one hand, the rocking
horse is the symbol for luck, money. In the other hand, it is just a childhood
toy, and it turn into a toxic money driven environment. Can you believe it ?
He live in this environment. When I talk about these detail, you may forget
that he is just a child. The more he tries to get rich, the more stressed he
becomes.
.
The tension comes to a head in the climactic scene. While lost in a trance
upon the rocking horse, Paul suffers a fit that leads to his death. This tragic
ending illustrates how Paul's gift has actually been a curse, consuming him
due to the toxic values he inherited from his environment.
In conclusion, while Paul finds a way to temporarily relieve his family's
poverty, his discovery unleashes forces beyond his control that ultimately
destroy him. I'm happy to address any questions you have and will now
pass it to the next presenter.

Slide 1: Hi everyone, my name is Dinh, To continue our presentation, I will talk

about Paul discovery of his unique and its implication.
Slide 2:. We learn that his mother Hester feels unfulfilled in her life and
marriage. She obsessed with social status and money and financial
troubles at home and luck. To help his mom, Paul decided to find luck. In
this detail, (He went off by himself, vaguely, in a childish way, seeking for
the clue to 'luck'). From my perspective, He start to obsesss with luck. He
seen it as a tangible to discover and he is more and more focused on
luck.

The level of this concentration continue rising and it is proved by this

detail : ‘He wanted luck, he wanted it, he wanted it’ and the author use anaphora
to emphasize his ambition. He desired luck. He wanted it, He wanted, but it also
illustrate for his unstable mental state. He want to find luck no matter what it
takes. Lawrence deftly places the reader inside Paul's fraying psychology and its
dangerous. I don't know whether this is luck or not. I will temporarily call that
it is luck
Slide 3: In the period of finding luck we can see In this detail : He sit on his big
rocking-horse, charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls
peer at him uneasily’’... It portray his ominous mental condition. The girls'
reaction implies this is externally visible and the word madly and frenzy can
prove for this aspect. It is not only in his mind, but also affect to people around
him.
Slide 4: In the previous silde, we have madly and frenzy to descibe his crazy
state . In the next level, ‘‘Wildly the horse careered, the waving dark hair of the
boy tossed, his eyes had a strange glare in them. The little girls dared not speak
to him’’. Through this detail ‘‘the waving dark hair of the boy tossed, his eyes
had a strange glare in them’’. The author draw and help the reader feel the Paul
situation by creating a vivid vision sense of his energetic state. It also show that
the his unusal state show more and more clearly and even the litte girls dared not
to speak.
Slide 5: His hysteria and psychological instability were not over yet. ‘He knew
the horse could take him to where there was luck, if only he forced it. So he
would mount again and start on his furious ride, hoping at last to get there’’.
He forced it. It display irrational and deluded thinking. The main reason is
powerless. He can not bring money in the normal way and he only based on the
luck. The "furious ride" metaphor portrays his frenetic mental state and growing
desperation as his dream-logic fails, hinting at impending psychological
breakdown. And the phrase "hoping at last to get there" can support for this
opinion. Poor Paul.
Slide 6 : In this slide, I will talk about Rocking Horse Symbolism. At first, when
discussing about the rocking horse, we can think that it is a childhood tool. It
include the innocent and funny of children. But in this work, it symbolize sth
darker and the main factor is the mother. She can obsess with luck or money. It
is really unacceptable when she convey it for him. She indirectly turen this toy
to darker symbol. It illustrate the pressure of money, social status and whatever
Hester desired. She put all of them on Paul and kill his childhood. When you
imagine the image Paul ride a horse. It is not an innocent child who play
happily.It is like a knight who must complete the mission. It symbolizing how he
takes on the role and pressure of being the family's sole breadwinner at a very
young age to please his mother.