The Rocking-Horse Winner - Essay Example

Rocking Horse Winner In the countryside of Texas, lived a poor family. Composed of a hardworking, yet no so lucky mother (Naomi) with 3 children and a drunken husband (Alex), the family passed through rough times in order to make ends meet. Derrick, Peter, and Arnold were the three children aged, 13, 12, and 8 respectively.Before Naomi and Alex became married, Alex was a successful business person, but with a small habit of gambling, of which he liked to call it “Texas style”(Lawrence 34).

Naomi copped with the habit since she knew once marriage, she would change him, but that is not what happened, when Derrick reached age 6, just about when he was supposed to start his primary school, Alex made the worst gambling attempt in one of his games and bet on his entire house back then in town (Lawrence 44). It was a terrible time for the family as they were forced to live their rich furnished house and move to the countryside, the initial birth place for Alex. Life in the countryside was pretty rough for the growing kids as money was always issues and impeded them from enjoying their childhood (Greiff 56).

When Derrick reached age 13, him being the first born, he saw he had the responsibility of taking care of his siblings as he had realized some problems in regard to care from both his parents (Lawrence 66). His father had lost hope in life and was permanently intoxicated day and night living his mother to feign for the family by working as a horse attendant in one of the ranches which held horsing occasionally.After a couple of times of accompanying her mother to the horse racing ranch, Derrick started to gather information and develop interest in the sport, despite several warnings from his mother regarding what happened to his dad.

From a Latino horse attendant he had come to befriend at the ranch, Derrick started learning the art of betting from his friend (Stoltzfus 44). After seeing the condition at their home starting to get worse after some days passing without them taking night meal, due to lack of money, Derrick decided to venture into betting seriously. He approached his uncle, Sam and asked for a 100 dollars loan with an assurity of payment after 5 days. Derrick was lucky to be given despite his uncle knowing their financial status.

Back in the ranch, on an on going betting game involving horse racing, Derrick managed to make his first bet and later won 2000 dollars. He later paid his uncle’s loan with a profit and the rest, used it as his capital to make more money from the game. Derrick was lucky in the game and managed to win over 100,000 dollars in a period of one month. In very well knowing the problems the family faced back home, Derrick starting giving her mother some money for the running of the house and in paying for his sibling’s school fees (Stoltzfus 56).

Within 7 months into the gambling business and luck always being on his side, Derrick managed to change the life of their family at just a tender age. The family managed to buy their initial house in town and once again, returned to become a good family after their father was taken for rehabilitation. Works CitedGreiff, L. K. (2006). D.H. Lawrence: fifty years on film. New York: SIU Press. Print. Lawrence, D. H. (1966). The Rocking-Horse Winner. New York: Dramatic Publishing. Print.---. (1974).

From fiction to film: D. H. Lawrences "The rocking-horse winner.". New York: Dickenson Pub. Print. Stoltzfus, B. (1996). Lacan and literature: purloined pretexts. New York: SUNY Press. Print.