“The Lottery” vs “The Rocking-Horse Winner”
Crystal Otts
ENGL 102-D21
July 18, 2015
The stories, “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson and “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, by D.H. Lawrence are two of the best short stories ever written. Even though both of the short stories have similarities, they also have differences.
“The Lottery” is a story about a small community coming together for a yearly tradition of choosing someone to win the lottery. In the story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, a young child by the name of Paul, is craving the love of his mother and decided he would do anything to win her love.
When you read the stories for the first time, you will think that there are no similarities between the two short stories at all. After reading the stories again and actually understanding them more, you will discover that there are in fact similarities between them. The theme between these two short stories share common factors, such as, love, fear and secrets.
In the story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, the mother is obsessed with money and therefore shows the lack of love for her family. Her son, Paul wants to change her mind so he can gain the love and affection from her by becoming lucky. Paul finds a way to become lucky by using a rocking horse that he received as a Christmas present. He believes that the horse has a magical power which warrants him to foresee the winner of the horse races. Paul becomes more infatuated with becoming lucky to calm his mother, but loses his life in the end.