The Lottery and the Rocking-Horse Winner

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“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (Jackson, 1948, para. 75). The stones were used by villagers to kill the victim that was selected by the lottery. The young children “made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys

In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, Lawrence written the story in the late 1920s in England, years after the First World War. In the “Rocking Horse-Winner”, D.H Lawrence used money as a symbol of luck. The story started with a women name Hester, who believes money is everything. She characterized herself as an unlucky person because of her family running out of money. “There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust” (Lawrence, 1933, para. 1).

Hester instilled in her children mind that money is luck. Without luck, you have no money. Through the year the children could hear a whisper of an unspoken phased: There must be more money! There must be more money! (Lawrence, 1933) One day Paul became curious and asked his mother, why they do not have any money. Hester responded with they are just unlucky, luck is the reason people are rich.

Is luck money, mother?” he asked, rather timidly. “No, Paul. Not quite.” “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 money (Lawrence,1933).

After Paul trying to gain his mother love, he started to gain money by gambling. Fighting for his mother approval and love, cause him to die.

In Conclusion, “The Lottery” and “The Rocking Horse Winner,” the authors used different form of symbolism to help the readers understand the stories. One story tells how powerful, evil, and controlling a black wooden box can be. The other showed how not having luck can also be powerful, evil and controlling. Both stories shared how powerful an object or word can cause evilness in their life.

References

Jackson, S. (1948). The Lottery. In X.J. Kennedy & D. Gioia (Eds.), The literature collection (p.71)

New York, NY: Pearson. (Original work published in 1948)

Lawrence, D. (1933). The Rocking-Horse Winner. In X.J. Kennedy & D. Gioia (Eds.), The literature collection e-text (P. 174)

New York, NY: Pearson. (Original work published in 1933)