Social status, most will recognize, is highly contingent upon any number of factors from lineage and occupation to ability and physical attractiveness. As such, it would appear that there is an unlimited social mobility potential for almost anybody. DH Lawrence's short story, "The Rocking Horse Winner," seeks to rebut that logic by constructing a family so damaged by its pursuit of social advancement as to destroy itself. (Durawa, 2) Paul, the story's protagonist, lives constantly in the shadow of his mother's disapproval, a disposition derived from her dissatisfaction with her husband and her standard of living. Hester, embittered by a lifetime of falling behind her more affluent neighbors, is fixated on the notion of luck as it pertains to social status. Paul's tragic fate at the story's conclusion serves to dispel Hester's notion that the acquisition of financial excess is the proof and merit of luck. DH Lawrence uses Paul's...
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