Thursday, March 26, 2015

How does “The Rocking-Horse Winner” portray the quest for material wealth?

To add to what has already been said, the obsessive
rocking on a horse that is, in reality, going nowhere presents an interesting parallel
to humankind's search for wealth. The rocking horse is stationary. It sits in one place
and does not move in spite of the fact that he keeps on rocking. This is a lot like life
in that we often pursue wealth incessantly with no clear direction for where we are
going. It is the vicious cycle of questing after possessions that, essentially, are
meaningless to us after we are dead. The family gets the money, and the father clearly
values the money more than the son, but in the end when we die we can't take material
wealth with us to the grave (well, we can, but what is the point?). Therefore, the story
asks a critical question - how important is wealth? Is money truly as valuable as we
make it out to be? And, in the end, which is more important: money or a life well-lived
in pursuit of something more tangible than spinning one's wheels in place for all
eternity?

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