Certain individuals have a drive that can lead them to achieve what they desire most. In the Short story “The Rocking Horse Winner”, D.H Lawrence shows this through character motivation and symbolism. He furthers this using pursuit of desire, and how if you take it to a certain extent it can result in tragedy if the individual chooses not to conform. Paul wants to please his mother because his mother feels that there family has no luck, but Paul believes that he is lucky. Paul suddenly becomes consumed with this sudden spree of good luck and feels this is the only way he will be able to gain to the affection of his mother. D.H Lawrence reveals that Paul has a certain flaw that turns him to believe that the only way he will be able to gain his mothers love and affection is by winning money in the horse races. He leads this pursuit of desire to the standards he thought he wanted to, but not to the standards that would have achieved what he wanted, which leads to his down fall. When individuals desire love from another, they may choose to conform their beliefs and actions to that person. At first they may feel successful, however if they sacrifice everything, in pursuing this kind of goal, they may pay a heavy price instead of gaining there hearts desire.

Paul desire his mother’s love more than anything. However he believes he needs to prove he is lucky. He struggles to prove that he is to make his mother happy. Paul wants his mother to love him more than anything. For Paul’s mother money equals luck, and this will gain her love. “There must be more money”(19). He hears these voices throughout the house. They hear these voices when they are receiving items of joy, especially around Christmas time. The other children can hear the voices and so can the rocking horse Paul received. Even though they can hear the voices they do not say anything. This is due to the fact that every one is used to it so it would be like saying “we are breathing”(20). This led Paul to realizes that there family is in debt and he believes that in order for them to get out of this debt, he has to take action. This shows that he is willing to take the problem into his own hands because he believes that no one else can do anything about it. Paul aligns himself with the attitude towards lucks. “I’m a lucky person”(21).Paul states this to his mother, however she responds with doubt and does not truly acknowledge or believe what Paul has just said. She most likely thinks that Paul doesn’t understand what they are going through and what luck really is. He thinks that by being lucky, which in the eyes of his mother is money, he will be able to gain her love but because of this doubt on his assertions he finds that this task is more difficult then he expected. She didn’t believe he is lucky; so he needs to prove it. This “angered him”(21) and made him want to “compel her attention”(21). The only way he saw it was that he needed to find this clue to luck in order to gain that admiration. Thus he is determined to find this luck and his passion grows to the point where all he is thinking about is how he can gain this luck. Lawrence describes his rise to luck in the situation when he is riding his rocking horse. This situation describes the point where Paul chooses to conform and begins his pursuit of luck.

As Paul makes the plan to show he is lucky he uses his conformity to his mothers ideals about money to achieve his personal desire. Paul has driven himself to find out what luck is. He sets up a plan to bet at the horse races, and is in partnership with there grounds keeper Basil. The plan is not known of until Uncle Oscar takes Paul to the races. He stated to his uncle Oscar, “I only know the winner”(23), and it’s true he does. He has found luck. He found it because he was certain that this is what he needed to do in order to achieve what he wanted most. This is illustrates Paul’s confidence and how he is always sure that he is picking the right horse. He finds the right horse through riding his rocking horse. He uses it as his way of getting there. It symbolizes his obsession to gain this luck which will equal the affection and love he admires most from his mother. “Daffodil uncle; No not a fiver on Daffodil” (24), However his uncle is doubting him as well when he offers him a fiver to bid on any horse and he picks Daffodil. This reassures that most people are not positive with what Paul is calling luck. This brings conflict that maybe Paul should not pursue this desire because many people close to him are doubting his insight. However Paul has already conformed to the path he is pursuing and is positive with his feeling of luck. Oscars impression of what Paul is doing soon changes “Daffodil came in first”(25), because the horse he picked came in first with 4/1 odds. Initially Oscar cannot believe what has happened, but he realizes that Paul does have a gift. Lawrence has illustrated that Paul is lucky, because he was able to pick the winning horse. Paul uses his own personal desire, to meet his mother’s ideals and gives her 1000 dollars to be given on her birthday for 5 years. He thinks that this should be enough to sustain her and perhaps gain her admiration however she later goes to the lawyer and asks to be given all of the money. He gives in to this because he is so consumed in what he is doing that he is willing to do anything to make his mother happy.

Because Paul has conformed, everything in his life to fulfilling his mother, he becomes overwhelmed and loses himself. Ultimately instead of gaining everything, the cost is tragedy. He believes he has to do this because he thinks that if she found out he was lucky she would most like stop him from going to the races. However even with the money that Paul has been giving to his mother, he still hears the voices in the house. This was because his mother has been spending all the money that she had been receiving from Paul. This resulted in Paul wanting to make sure that he was positive on the horse he was going to pick to win the race. He won’t leave before the derby and with the derby on the horizon Paul finds himself in anxiety and was not sure what horse he was going to pick. “I couldn’t possibly go before the derby mother” (30) with his mind set on the derby, and the big purse that would come with it. He believes that if he wins big at the derby he will be able to showcase his luck to his family. With the increased pressure being put on his shoulders, this started to lead Paul to his increased anxiety. In addition, “His mother had strange seizures of uneasiness about him” (31). He was still secretly betting on the horse races without his mother knowing, but she was starting to become curious with his increased anxiety. She of course did not know what he was all caught up in because she never knew that he was going to the derby to bet. This created a problem. Paul had all this built up emotion inside of him and did not know how to release it. He wants to do this all for his mother however he can never let her know because he feels that she will stop him. He is pursuing his own desire but is leading two separate paths, one for the money, and another for his mother. This ultimately leads to Paul’s demise. “Mother, did I ever tell you/No you did not”(34) He never told his mother what he was doing for her. He wanted to gain her love more than anything. He conformed to a certain path that he thought would be able to achieve his ultimate desire.
Paul wanted to gain the love his mother more than anything. He chose to conform to the path of luck. While pursing this personal desire, he became overwhelmed with in it and this ultimately led to his demise. If he would have been able to control his desire it may have been able to save him from tragedy. When an individual chooses to conform to meet the ideals of another individual in order to achieve there own personal desire, they can not sacrifice everything for that persons ideals because it can often result in tragedy.