Young, so Gifted so Old:

¶ … Young, So Gifted So Old: A comparing and contrasting essay of the young protagonists of "The Rocking Horse Winner" by DH Lawrence, "Suicide Note" by Janice Mirikitani and "The Cuban Swimmer" by Milcha Sanchez-Scott

The Rocking Horse Winner" by DH Lawrence, "Suicide Note" by Janice Mirikitani, and "The Cuban Swimmer" by Milcha Sanchez-Scott are three different genres of fiction grappling with a similar problem: a young protagonist is forced to grow old too soon, because of the stresses of the adult world. Although Lawrence's short story takes place during the early 20th century, while Mirikitani's poem and Sanchez-Scott's drama are set in contemporary American contexts, all provide examples of how gifted protagonists must suffer, and often give up their unique gifts, because of the misunderstandings and imposed pressures of the adults in their lives. These adults should be responsible for these children's care. But because the adults do not provide these young persons with a secure and nonjudgmental home environment, the protagonists are forced into the adult world before they are emotionally able to cope with its difficulties.

These protagonists may possess intellectual and physical gifts that the older generation lacks, but these gifts do not give the children the ability to weather the trials and travails of existence any better than an ordinary child or adolescent. In fact, their gifts become burdens rather than sources of comfort as a result of adult needs. For example, "The Rocking Horse Winner" by DH Lawrence first presents the home of a financially pressed working-class family in need of money. Money is such a constant and pervasive need that the short story memorably describes the house as virtually breathing the need for money. The use of the short story genre, in contrast to Mirikitani's poem or Sanchez-Scott's more personally focused play allows for a slightly more sympathetic portrayal of the boy's caretakers who press him to use his gift at fortune telling to make money for the family by betting on horses. The story opens with a portrayal of the home, not the child, to balance the eventually cruel treatment of the child. Regardless, by the end of the story, when the reader witnesses the strain that the pressures of this gift of divination has put upon the boy, even the most fair-minded reader concludes that his prophesy is more of a curse, and his family is wrong to depend upon the child for their entire livelihood.

In contrast to Lawrence's story, which fully presents the family's financially desperate situation as well as the growing desperation of its gifted child, "Suicide Note" is a poem, and thus evolves through the voice and mind of a single protagonist. The reader only gains a sense of societal context through the solipsistic perspective of the individual. The girl says she "not good enough not pretty enough not smart enough," for her "dear mother and father." Unlike the grasping relatives of the Lawrence tale, the reader can only guess what her house was like, when she was growing up. Evidently, it provoked great angst within the girl. For example, she mourns she was not born a son with strong shoulders, suggesting the parents had high expectations and gave their daughter a strong inferiority complex.

As with Lawrence's young protagonist, the burden of excellence becomes too great, and the girl feels she cannot provide for her family -- intellectually, rather than financially. The metaphor of the boy's rocking horse, endlessly rocking back and forth to churn out the names of winners in maddening repetition becomes transformed, in "Suicide Note," into another kind of repetitive metaphor, that of failed flight. The boy, who should have rode on a real horse into his future becomes locked in childhood, madness, and misery, trapped by the adult-sized needs of his family, and the girl, who should have sailed confidently into adulthood dies a failed attempt at flying. The girl is endlessly flapping her invisible wings to take flight but sinks to her death as she jumps to her demise, trying and failing to fly for real. The anonymous speaker of the poem is an adolescent, unlike Lawrence's child, and the tone and more personal style of poem as it is told in a first-person's adolescent voice, lacks the third-person omniscient humor and larger perspective of the Lawrence piece. The plot is simpler, more realistic than fantastic, but no less poignant.

The Cuban Swimmer" by Milcha Sanchez-Scott also structured around a metaphorical context. It is a drama about a young woman named Margarita swimming from Cuba to the United States. Like Lawrence's short story, it is a heightened metaphor and narrative, used to depict a larger truth. The girl's love of displaying her physical gifts becomes an attempt to free her spirit from the oppression of her homeland and the expectations that lie behind her in Cuba. The adolescent girl initially sees her effort in romantic, poetic colors, just as Lawrence's child only dreams of the beauty of horses, before his gift becomes polluted with the financial demands of his parents. She will "dive into the Milky Way," says Margarita.

But Margarita's family has practical needs that are sympathetic, initially, but unknown to the girl, of gaining fame and fortune.