Comparing "Rocking Horse Winner" & "The Stone Boy"

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In the stories, “The Rocking Horse Winner” by DH Lawrence and “The Stone Boy,” by Gina Berriault the authors give us a glimpse of two young boys who suffer through similar problems. The comparison shows how in these stories both boys try to win over their mother’s love without success. . Both of the stories demonstrate how children are dominated by their parents and how the parents’ behavior affects the boys. Think of it as a candle, once you melt that candle there is no way to put it back together. This is true for both of the stories. In “The Rocking Horse Winner” the mother’s greed for money forces her son Paul to find ways to get more money in order to try to win over her love and attention. In the very beginning of the story it described a mother who “had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her; and she could not love them (Lawrence, 162).” The mother was always good at showing a respectable image to her friends about how she felt about her children though. It states that her friends say “She is such a good mother: She adores her children (Lawrence, 162).” Paul is determined to win his mother’s love by gambling and goes on a “mad little journey (Lawrence, 165)” in order to try to prove to his mother that he is lucky and she could love him. “The Rocking Horse Winner” shows diminished family connections/values throughout the story. Paul’s mother feels as though she is empty inside because the family lacks wealth, and she believes that without that you have no identity. It is this emptiness that makes her think that she cannot love her children. The mother lavishes the children with gifts such as the rocking horse and doll houses in order to try to compensate for her lack of love for them. These hollow toys are what symbolize the lack of love that is felt by the mother and symbolize the children’s emptiness. Paul decides that he is
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