Analysis of "the Rocking Horse Winner"

There is an element of conflict in the short story The Rocking-horse Winner. The conflict is between the mother, who is obsessed with money, and her child, Paul, who desperately wants to show his mother that he is "lucky" and can make her money so that maybe she will love him. The story's introduction states that the children know that the mother doesn't love them; they "read it in each other's eyes". This conflict drives the story, because without this conflict Paul would not be inclined to obsess so much over making money on horse race betting.

There are several themes arguably present in the story. One is that the mother's obsession with money and materials leads her to neglect her children. The children can tell that the mother doesn't love them, and an unspoken anxiety about money permeates the household. Even when Paul sends money to his mother, it's still not enough. The mother's personality is such that no amount of money will ever satisfy her, and her relationship with her children suffers as a result. This theme of neglect is arguably the central theme.

The story is written from an omniscient third-person point of view. You can tell because the narrator is not in the story and has insight into the thoughts and actions of all characters, enabling the author to reveal the thoughts of the characters. For example, "His mother had sudden strange seizures of uneasiness about him". This point of view allows the reader to have insight into events and thoughts that they wouldn't otherwise have if a character had narrated the story instead.

The plot structure of the story is as follows. The introduction is introducing the mother and explaining how she doesn't love her children and is obsessed with money.The rising action is when Paul keeps betting on horse races with bigger and bigger states. The climax is Paul riding his horse for the final time despite being sick. The story doesn't really have a resolution, but its denouement is Paul's death and Oscar stating that she's 80,000 pounds richer but she has lost her son. This follows a typical story's plot structure.