Desires Never Satisfied

Desires not only give us the motivation to improve for a better life, but too much greed may ruin our lives. The mother, Hester, from D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" proves this. She has beloved husband, three children, and "in style" (312) life. However, she is still not satisfied. This beautiful woman considers herself as "having no luck" (311). Her grievance fills the house that makes her son, Paul, constantly hearing whispering "there must be more money!" (312). It seems, whatever she or her husband do, she is never able to reach the success to cover up her desires. It drives the little boy to try to reach the luck by riding the rocking-horse to bring back for his mother that he thinks it would make her happy. At the tragic end, Paul makes a large amount of money but it costs him his life. Ironically, his mother is not happy at all as he wished, because she wants more and more. Her desire of money would never be satisfied.

This sad story reflects the life of every one of us. As a human, all of us would have aspirations or expectations of our life. They may be successful career, academic achievement, family concentration, romantic requirement, outstanding reputation, extensive knowledge, material wealth, and etc. All of these desires drive us to improve ourselves to reach the final goal. However, when we actually reach it, we usually don't feel enough. We will set up the higher and higher goals to keep us moving on. Sometimes we would rather to reach the goal by any cost. On the positive part, this motivation is the reason for making our life become better and better. But if these desires turn to be out of control, especially the desires for material wealth, all of the pleasance from looking forward to the better life will become the torture.

As the story described, money is one of the main factors that drives people insane. Wealth is one of the most important values for Chinese. Most people are judged by how much money they can make. When I was younger, early 20s, I felt the same way as Hester, the mother in the story. I was single and had a decent job. But I always wanted more money. I worked hard day and night and didn't have time to enjoy the life and date as common young people do. I never thought about why I want to have it if I am not going to have time to use it. I lived far away from my parents just because I could have more opportunities at that city to make more money. When I just graduated from college, I wanted a job. But when I got a job, I started to think for another job with better benefits and higher pay. Career was never the word in my mind. As Hester, when she had one thousand per year in hand, she "had a long interview with the lawyer, asking if the whole five thousand could be advanced at once" (320). What I did? I asked for more projects to occupy my spare time. When I look backward today, I could see I worked just for the check.