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¶ … Destructors" by Graham Greene and "The Rocking Horse Winner" by DH Lawrence have little in common. However, when the emotional impact of each plot on the various characters is considered, it becomes clear that there are many points of comparison. Thus, this paper will compare and contrast the emotions experienced by selected characters in each story. In order to achieve this goal, issues such as children, adults and the emotions experienced in various ways by each are considered first. This is followed by a discussion of the end of the two works. Each story ends in a destruction that can be both compared and contrasted with each other.
Children as Main Characters
Both stories feature children as their main characters. It is also true that in each story the children in the roles of main character are somewhat unusual. In Greene's story for example, Trevor has a distinctly dark character. At fifteen years of age he has a brooding temperament. Greene mentions that it is as if he had never been truly a child. Nearly same is true of Paul in Lawrence's story. The boy is forced into growing up quickly by the financial circumstances of the family. Paul and his two sisters are reminded on a constant basis of the financial difficulties of their parents. This manifests itself...
There is a never-ending and urgent need for more money. The children are more aware than normal children should be of the necessity of money for well-being. Later Paul learns from his mother that the lack of money is directly connected to both her and his father's lack of luck. This prompts Paul's unchildlike search for luck. The search is culminated in a rocking horse. With the help of Bassett, the gardener, Paul begins betting on horses, winning uncannily on a regular basis. Later, when Paul grows up, he keeps the rocking horse in his room, much to the dismay of his mother, who feels that he has grown too old for it. This is a point of contrast with Trevor in Greene's story. Whereas Paul harbors the dichotomy of being too mature for his years while at the same time being unable to grow up, Trevor appears never to have been a child.
Trevor joins a gang of boys who congregate on a regular basis in a parking lot. The whole areas has been destroyed by bombs. Only the old man, Thomas's, house still remains. Thomas is referred to as "Old Misery" by the children. In his better years he was known as a builder and decorator. Trevor visits the old man and comes up with a plan for the gang. He wants to destroy the old man's house. His motivation is…
Destructors, by Graham Greene and "The Rocking-Horse Winner," by DH Lawrence. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the two stories. Greed has always been a powerful motivator, and greed is one of the main themes in these two works that seem quite similar at first glance. However, a closer reading brings out the dissimilarities in these works, but ultimately points to greed as a powerful destructive force in our
Meanwhile, T. was a different kind of leader. He wants his ideas to be followed and he led the gang to a dangerous and cruel mischief. The story also touches on the choice between good and bad as presented by Blackie's decision of whether or not join the destruction of Old Misery's house. Eventually, Blackie chose a purely egoistic choice basing his decision on the need for distinction. Ironies are
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and DH Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner," the desire of human beings to gain control over their existence with the use of rituals and 'magic' is in evidence. Use of ritual and superstition in "The Lottery and "The Rocking Horse Winner" In one story, magic is real, in the other it is not II. "The Lottery" Plot of sacrifice Sacrifice highly ritualized Not performing the magic is seen as barbaric, ironically "The
The story that Lawrence writes bears the entire existentialist anguish of the 20th century. The boy needs a parallel and imaginary universe, with the horse as its centerpiece, on which to base his existence, mainly because of an attempt to avoid and evade his own existence. This is where his imagination meets his remarkable gift for choosing horses at the race track. On the other hand, in Greene's story, the existentialist
setting of a story can reveal important things about the narrative's larger meaning, because the setting implies certain things about the characters, context, and themes that would otherwise remain implicit or undiscussed. In their short stories "The Lottery" and "The Rocking-Horse Winner," Shirley Jackson and DH Lawrence use particular settings in order to comment on the political and socio-economic status of their characters without inserting any explicitly political or
Thematic Development in "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Most Dangerous Game" While Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" both feature the same basic theme of good vs. evil, the additional themes that the author utilize in telling their stories serves to differentiate them in a significant way, so that Hawthorne's story suggests that evil can corrupt even a successful protagonist while Connell suggests that his protagonist