eassy due today
“The Rocking Horse Winner” and “The Destructors” are both stories of longing. The characters are longing for something they do not have but feel if they did have, they would be complete. These two stories, while set in different times and use different social class to illustrate the authors’ points, both clearly show a longing to fill the emptiness that is inside of everyone who chooses to live life outside of God. This paper will compare and contrast the different ways Graham Greene and D.H. Lawrence express this longing focusing on the characters and setting of each story.
Graham Greene’s story The Destructors is set in post World War II London. London during this period was in the process of rebuilding after the Blitz. The story takes place 9 years after the end of the war (1954) the year that finally saw the end of Rationing. The war and rationing contributed to the end of the class system, rationing meant that no one had enough of rationed items such as clothing, meat, sugar, and eggs. Neither money nor title would earn you extra ration points. The Wormsley Common Gang grew up with few material comforts; their families like all families in London, struggled to pay their bills and provide for their basic needs. These boys did not have a reason to hope for a brighter future. Everything around them was destruction and want, except for Mr. Thomas’s house. This house stood alone on a block of destruction, beaten and damaged but not destroyed. Mr. Thomas’s house stood as a reminder of the previous glory of this beaten London neighborhood.
Mr. Lawrence’s story The Rocking Horse Winner setting is a stark contrast to war torn London. He describes the house the family lives in as “a pleasant house, with a garden” and states that the family “lived in style” This story takes place during the late 1800s, a point in time where the class system was firmly in place. The family lived an upper middle class life in a pleasant upper middle class neighborhood. The main character, Paul, did not want for basic comforts. He had more than he could ever ask for unlike The Wormsley Common Gang.
Mr. Greene and Mr. Lawrence both used one character to embody longing. In The Destructors, Mr. Greene used the name Trevor for one of his main characters. Trevor was a name that belonged to the class system, an upper class name that had no place in a street gang. The gang shortened his name to T because they could not accept a Trevor in their gang. Trevor’s parents prior to the war had belonged to the same class as the characters in The Rocking Horse Winner. The ravages of the war and the changes in society brought about a change in circumstance for Trevor’s family. The author states that Trevor’s mother thinks she is better than her neighbors are and she raised Trevor with an education beyond that of his friends. He has an understanding of what his family, and all of London lost. Trevor is caught between two worlds, the one he lives in now of lower class wanting and the world of pre-war upper class London that his family came from. A part of Trevor longs for the world of the past; he can see beauty where his friends only see a decaying old house.
The character in The Rocking Horse Winner that embodies longing is a character known only as Mother. Mother’s lack of a first or last name is intentional on the part of the author; her name is her role, one that she is unable to fulfill, which creates the longing her son Paul feels. She is a shallow character who only cares about her place in society. Mother is unable to see the blessings in her life and what she has is never enough. The family’s income is not enough to provide all the things that she feels will raise her position in society. She attributes the short income to bad luck and teaches Paul that lucky people have enough money for all of the things she views as important. In this way, she passes her longings onto her son. Paul sets out to prove he is lucky and to gain money through luck for his mother. What Paul is really longing for is his mother’s love, which she is unable to give him because her focus is on filling the emptiness in her heart with worldly things. What the mother did not know is that things will never fill her longing; only God can fill deep longing in the soul.
There is an intriguing common element in these stories and that is the authors’ use of the houses. In each story, the house plays a vital role, almost to the point of being characters in the story, creating a feeling of empathy for the houses. In The Destructors, Trevor understands why Mr. Thomas loves his house. He can see the beauty in the architecture and understands the pride Mr. Thomas has in what was once a very grand house. The house epitomizes everything that Trevor is longing for and feels he cannot have because the era the house is from is now gone. In The Rocking Horse Winner the house is a symbol illustrating the effect, Mother’s stress has on everyone in the household. Paul hears the house calling for “more money” in his imagination. Paul’s plan to “be lucky” leads him to betting on horse races and he is indeed lucky and wins. Uncle Oscar arranged for Paul’s anonymous gift to his mother of 1000 pounds a year for five years. Mother was not grateful or satisfied with 1000 pounds a year she wanted the entire amount up front. Paul’s intention was to stop the house from wanting more money. Since there was no such thing as enough money for Mother, the house seemed to scream “more money” with greater intensity in Paul’s imagination.
Ultimately, the longing in each story brings about death. In The Rocking Horse Winner the death is of young Paul. He wasted away riding his rocking horse day and night attempting to find the name of the winner of the next big race to reclaim his luck and fulfill his mother’s longing. The Destructors has the destruction of Mr. Thomas’s house. The house is a relic from the past and instead of cherishing it, Trevor chooses to destroy it. The destruction of the house is not the same as the loss of a human life; but for Mr. Thomas standing amongst the rubble of his ruined beloved home the death was of the past and what he valued. Every human has a longing in their soul for something that is almost beyond words. That longing is for God and all that he offers us in His grace. The theme that each of these stories has in common is how wrong our lives can go when we try to fill that longing with something other than God.
Edited to the second draft
Graham Greene’s story The Destructors is set in post World War II London. London during this period was in the process of rebuilding after the Blitz. The story takes place 9 years after the end of the war (1954) the year that finally saw the end of Rationing. The war and rationing contributed to the end of the class system, rationing meant that no one had enough of rationed items such as clothing, meat, sugar, and eggs. Neither money nor title would earn you extra ration points. The Wormsley Common Gang grew up with few material comforts; their families like all families in London, struggled to pay their bills and provide for their basic needs. These boys did not have a reason to hope for a brighter future. Everything around them was destruction and want, except for Mr. Thomas’s house. This house stood alone on a block of destruction, beaten and damaged but not destroyed. Mr. Thomas’s house stood as a reminder of the previous glory of this beaten London neighborhood.
Mr. Lawrence’s story The Rocking Horse Winner setting is a stark contrast to war torn London. He describes the house the family lives in as “a pleasant house, with a garden” and states that the family “lived in style” This story takes place during the late 1800s, a point in time where the class system was firmly in place. The family lived an upper middle class life in a pleasant upper middle class neighborhood. The main character, Paul, did not want for basic comforts. He had more than he could ever ask for unlike The Wormsley Common Gang.
Mr. Greene and Mr. Lawrence both used one character to embody longing. In The Destructors, Mr. Greene used the name Trevor for one of his main characters. Trevor was a name that belonged to the class system, an upper class name that had no place in a street gang. The gang shortened his name to T because they could not accept a Trevor in their gang. Trevor’s parents prior to the war had belonged to the same class as the characters in The Rocking Horse Winner. The ravages of the war and the changes in society brought about a change in circumstance for Trevor’s family. The author states that Trevor’s mother thinks she is better than her neighbors are and she raised Trevor with an education beyond that of his friends. He has an understanding of what his family, and all of London lost. Trevor is caught between two worlds, the one he lives in now of lower class wanting and the world of pre-war upper class London that his family came from. A part of Trevor longs for the world of the past; he can see beauty where his friends only see a decaying old house.
The character in The Rocking Horse Winner that embodies longing is a character known only as Mother. Mother’s lack of a first or last name is intentional on the part of the author; her name is her role, one that she is unable to fulfill, which creates the longing her son Paul feels. She is a shallow character who only cares about her place in society. Mother is unable to see the blessings in her life and what she has is never enough. The family’s income is not enough to provide all the things that she feels will raise her position in society. She attributes the short income to bad luck and teaches Paul that lucky people have enough money for all of the things she views as important. In this way, she passes her longings onto her son. Paul sets out to prove he is lucky and to gain money through luck for his mother. What Paul is really longing for is his mother’s love, which she is unable to give him because her focus is on filling the emptiness in her heart with worldly things. What the mother did not know is that things will never fill her longing; only God can fill deep longing in the soul.
There is an intriguing common element in these stories and that is the authors’ use of the houses. In each story, the house plays a vital role, almost to the point of being characters in the story, creating a feeling of empathy for the houses. In The Destructors, Trevor understands why Mr. Thomas loves his house. He can see the beauty in the architecture and understands the pride Mr. Thomas has in what was once a very grand house. The house epitomizes everything that Trevor is longing for and feels he cannot have because the era the house is from is now gone. In The Rocking Horse Winner the house is a symbol illustrating the effect, Mother’s stress has on everyone in the household. Paul hears the house calling for “more money” in his imagination. Paul’s plan to “be lucky” leads him to betting on horse races and he is indeed lucky and wins. Uncle Oscar arranged for Paul’s anonymous gift to his mother of 1000 pounds a year for five years. Mother was not grateful or satisfied with 1000 pounds a year she wanted the entire amount up front. Paul’s intention was to stop the house from wanting more money. Since there was no such thing as enough money for Mother, the house seemed to scream “more money” with greater intensity in Paul’s imagination.
Ultimately, the longing in each story brings about death. In The Rocking Horse Winner the death is of young Paul. He wasted away riding his rocking horse day and night attempting to find the name of the winner of the next big race to reclaim his luck and fulfill his mother’s longing. The Destructors has the destruction of Mr. Thomas’s house. The house is a relic from the past and instead of cherishing it, Trevor chooses to destroy it. The destruction of the house is not the same as the loss of a human life; but for Mr. Thomas standing amongst the rubble of his ruined beloved home the death was of the past and what he valued. Every human has a longing in their soul for something that is almost beyond words. That longing is for God and all that he offers us in His grace. The theme that each of these stories has in common is how wrong our lives can go when we try to fill that longing with something other than God.
Edited to the second draft
posted by Chris | 1:43 AM
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