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The Rocking Horse Winner and The Destructors: A Comparison

A. Compare and contrast AThe Rocking Horse Winner@ and AThe Destructors.@

2. Paul destroys himself for money and love

3. Theme of materialism vs human values

This paper will compare and contrast two English short stories: D. H. Lawrence=s AThe Rocking Horse Winner@ and Graham Greene=s AThe Destructors.@ The stories will be compared in terms of theme, plot, characters, setting and mood and the purpose of each author. Both stories deal with destruction at the physical and allegorical levels.

Greene=s purpose can be best explained by reading AThe Destructors@ as an allegory on the destruction of stable life in London caused by World War II and its aftermath. Lawrence=s story can be explained as a symbolic illustration of the terrible consequences of the destruction of human values that he believed were caused by the materialism and greed of modern society. The mood of both stories is dark and prophetic; the destruction of society by violence and false values will have an adverse and often horrific impact on children.

The child in Lawrence=s story is Paul, a young boy who is driven to be lucky in order to please his mother and thereby receive her love. The mother=s character is set up early by Lawrence: AThere was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck....She had bonny children...and she could not love them@ (Lawrence 147). Lawrence adds that although the outside world believed the mother loved her children and thought she was a good mother, Aonly she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so@ (Lawrence 147).

Early in the story Lawrence establishes that the mother is bitter because her husband is unlucky and therefore the family does not have enough money. The mother=s values have been corrupted by materialism, and her innocent child will destroy himself trying to feed her lust for lots of money. The mother=s desire for wealth an

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The Rocking Horse Winner and The Destructors: A Comparison. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 13:56, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709610.html