The Rocking-Horse Winner resolution

Answer 1

The rocking horse winner is a story primarily focusing on the desperate urge of a young boy, Paul to be "lucky" having understood the meaning of the word "luck" in a different and rather a corrupted light.

Paul constantly and perpetually hears repetitive sounds of whispering in the walls of his house as "There must be more money. There must be more money". The overwhelming obsession with which he hears the whisperings and his understanding of the fact that his family lacked wealth considerably, forces him to ask his mother why they did not have car and why they were the poor member of the family. The answer that he gets from his mother is "its because your father has no luck".

Having correlated the word "luck" with "wealth" he decides rather with an air of desperation and declares that he is "lucky".

Perhaps due to his sheer determination and obsession he acquires a divinely power to predict the name of the winners in the horse races. Primarily with the help of Besset, the gardener and later his maternal uncle, Oscar, Paul wins considerable amount of money by picking the name of the winning horses in the races. He decides with the help of the attorney that his family be given a sum of one thousand pounds each year for five years. Yet, his mother dissatisfied having received only one thousand a year instead of the entire five thousand at once, remains cold and stiff, contrary and inconsistent with what Paul had expected. Instead of silencing the whisperings of the house, the noises further intensifies making Paul's initiative and concern immaterial. It only adds to his frenzied obsession.

His secret of the divinely power of picking the horses is actually his rocking horse. When he desperately rocks in his horse, the name of the winning horse in the real race gets revealed.

In a major upcoming horse race, Derby, he becomes determined to pick the winning horse. He madly rides and rocks his rocking-horse to know the winning horse. Two nights before the Derby, her mother returning from a party discovers the maddening rage with which Paul rocks his horse. Paul falls unconscious before her. He only wakes up to hear from her uncle that 'Malabar' the horse that he had picked in the Derby and won and he had acquired Eighty Thousand Pounds.

Paul, with sheer happiness asks her mother if he had told her earlier that he was lucky. His mother says he never said so. But this reminds the readers Paul's primary assertion that he was actually "lucky". Ultimately he pays the price of death for proving the same.

Answer 2

In "The Rocking-Horse Winner," the story's resolution is the death of Paul. He rode to his death, attempting to make a cold, narcissistic mother love him and be happy. The problem was the mother would never be happy because she just continued to upgrade her lifestyle with each new amount of money, thus always believing she didn't have enough. She was emotionally unavailable and incapable of showing her child love.

Answer 3

Obsession with material wealth, Oedipus concept and In the pursuit of helping

Answer 4

The young boy Paul; his mother, Hester; his father; his Uncle Oscar Cresswell; his sister Joan; the gardener, Basset and the governess, Miss Wilmot.

Answer 5

luck