Perspectives

Literary movement

The short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence is an example of modernist literature. 

Modernist stories tend to look at topics of interest, which define the society of a particular time. In the story, the author looks at the family’s financial issues, which affect Paul. Then, modernist stories rely on symbols, which is also the case of “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, where symbols such as the horse, money, and the voices draw attention to the story’s main themes. 

The short story also has some fantastic, fairy-tale elements. The opening sentence, for example, resembles the beginning of fairy-tales. The voices that the children hear could represent a fantastic element, which resembles the warning that fairy-tales heroes receive d...