Rocking Horse Winner and The Chyrsanthemums

The thematic pattern of Lawrence's story could be described as magical realism. The narrative combines vivid imagination, an environment of intense psychological dysfunction, and features of sorcery and demonology. The reader either will or won't give himself over to the conceit, but the element of dark and effective magic can be set beside the intense and deep emotional emptiness that engulfs the boy's life and makes all the more shocking the effect of his death. In Steinbeck's story, there is a more subtle but no less intense undercurrent of effect. In "The Chrysanthemums," the thematic pattern of an ambiguous flirtation is established through highly suggestive description of physical surroundings and of behavior.

Demonic figures, obsessiveness, and irony interact in "Rocking-Horse." The most obvious demon is the rocking horse itself, which Paul identifies with God, something so sacred that it has no name except the one the horse reveals fr

. . .
ng on long shots is a composite irony: For the mother, a lucky streak is not lucky enough. Despite a glimmer of maternal concern for her dying son and her shock at seeing him rocking intensely on the horse, she who is not shy about asking for the full amount of a windfall instead of annuity payments and can be expected to mourn Paul's loss mainly because the lucky streak is over. Oscar certainly expects so, which explains the point he makes (13), that Paul is better off dead if a rocking-horse and not mother is the center of life, closes the story. The intensity of feeling evoked by "The Chrysanthemums" comes about, not because the story describes what is going on inside the mind of the central character, as in "Rocking Horse," but because Steinbeck encodes the psychological content of the character by telling how Elisa behaves and what she says. Elisa's untapped strength is indicated by how she cuts the flower stalks: "over-eager, over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy" (78-9). Competent as Elisa is, her sense of oppression is obvious. Her eyes flash at her husband's offhand comment that she could raise orchard apples as big as the mums (she could). She must ask about "his" business with t
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1393
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)