In D.H Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner” and “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson the theme of death and gambling, not for money, but for life in “The Lottery”. Death appears towards the end of the stories in “The Lottery” Tessie wins the lottery and is stoned, meanwhile Paul in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” dies trying to gain the affection of his mother.
In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” Paul rides his treasured rocking horse to determine the outcome of the horse races to win money to try to gain the affection of his mother who seems to only care about material things, especially money. When Oscar asks Paul about the name of his horse Paul is unable to come up with a name, he used the names of the champion horses as the name of his treasured toy. Paul hears whispers from inside the house “There must be more money” as his uncaring mother spent more and more, which drove him to ride his horse more and more until he became physically exhausted from riding and ultimately died.
Paul’s only goal in the story was to get the love of his mother who only cared for money and material things. Hester, Paul’s mother was unable to love her children which we learned from the story in the opening sentences when D.H Lawrence writes “She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them” (100). While Paul would gamble on horses to gather money for his neglectful mother
During “The Lottery” we also see death as a theme. Shirley Jackson’s short story starts off as if everything is fine with children playing and gathering rocks after school ends for their summer vacation. Before too long into the story the story seems to take a turn more towards the dark side. The lottery itself isn’t one, one would like to find themselves the winner of. In this timeless short story it takes us from a nice start of summer afternoon to a dark unthinkable twist. Tessie Hutchinson the main protagonist of the story, who ends up winning the...