The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence Research Paper

The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence - Research Paper Example The author addresses different social features in the form of themes. Among the most evident themes in the story are poverty, cohesions in the family institution and death among many others. By addressing such, the author provides a relative portrayal of the early English society from his point of view (Barrett, Thomas and Lawrence 121). Art is a cultural product that provides a relative representation of the society. The relativity of art arises from the angles of adoptions preferred by the artists. As an artist, D. H. Lawrence seeks to portray the early English society. He investigates the social structure of the time thus writes a story that typifies specific social features that he believes are of relevance to the people. Poverty for example has remained a major factor in most societies as people strive to obtain a living through their merger earnings. The author thus uses an imaginary family and imaginary characters to depict the effects of poverty on family relations. The story centers on the life of a middle class early English woman who believed she had no luck. Her husband strives to make a living out of arts but his endeavors do not pay off thus compelling the family to live miserably in poverty. Poverty is a state of deprival as people fail to afford a decent living. The same is the case with the family that struggles with the need to sustain the woman’s high profile life since she is an extravagant spender. In an attempt to help his family, her son takes to gambling and realizes that he is lucky as she predicts the winning horse in the local rocking competition. He however practice hard on his rocking horse thus acquires an infection and dies at the end of the story. The mother does not change her lifestyle and even as the boy dies the family makes a hefty eighty thousand pounds that the woman spends extravagantly (Lawrence 31). The author centers the story on fundamental social features and institutions that define the nature of life in soci eties. in doing this, the author understands the need to achieve some relevance with his audience and therefore uses familiar social features which help earn the story the much desired relevance. Such activities as horse rocking were common in the early European culture and therefore relevant to the society. The same is attributable to such features as the family institution, poverty and even death. The relationship among the members of the family is an equally important determinant of the peace and stability in the family. The author analyses the need for peace and love in a family by portraying the nature of the family in the story. The woman, Hester does not love her son Paul who on the other hand loves his mother and therefore strives to support the family. The lack of maternal love compels the boy to hide some secrets from the mother. He takes to gambling secretly and only tells his father much later when he realizes that the family situation is overwhelming the old man. Anothe r important determinant of the relevance of the book among its diverse audience group is the use of language. The language an author uses to develop a story helps define an audience for the story thus earing their acknowledgement of the work. Additionally, the language among other literary features helps portray the authors’ professionalism and ability to communicate to the specific target audience. Lawrence’s story targets a general readership. This implies that the story