Destructors, by Graham Greene and the Rocking-Horse Term Paper

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Destructors, by Graham Greene and "The Rocking-Horse Winner," by DH Lawrence. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the two stories. Greed has always been a powerful motivator, and greed is one of the main themes in these two works that seem quite similar at first glance. However, a closer reading brings out the dissimilarities in these works, but ultimately points to greed as a powerful destructive force in our lives, and that society reveres money and possessions above all else.

Greed in Two Similar Works

Initially, these two short stories seem quite similar. They are both set in Great Britain, and they both have young boys as their main characters. At first glance, they seem as if they might be stories about growing up in different worlds than we are used to, but underlying this first look are some dark and disturbing themes about how greed can destroy, and how destruction simply for the sake of destruction is a form of greed all its own. Both stories also illustrate how a love of "things" or possessions can become a destructive form of greed, too. Greene notes this in his story, and shows how young juvenile delinquents view possessions. He writes, "All this hate and love,' he said, 'it's soft, it's hooey. There's only things, Blackie,' and he looked round the room crowded with the unfamiliar shadows of half things, broken things, former things" (Greene 236). The group of young boys tears down the old man's house because they see it as a symbol of everything they do not have, and a symbol of the possessions they would love to own, but do not. They do not see the old man as a human, and so they must destroy everything that is dear to him. This dark tale shows how the greed (as the young boys see it) brings about ultimate destruction, and in this, it is very like "The Rocking-Horse Winner," for greed is the ultimate destruction in that story, too.

Paul is the young protagonist of "The Rocking-Horse Winner," and he is a sympathetic character because he is kind, and gives his life to better his family.

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Throughout the story, his family is more concerned with money (or the lack of it), while they try to keep up the appearances to the outside world that they indeed have money. He often hears his parents arguing about money, and he understand its' importance in their lives. Lawrence writes,

There must be more money! There must be more money!' And the children would stop playing, to listen for a moment. They would look into each other's eyes, to see if they had all heard. And each one saw in the eyes of the other two that they too had heard. 'There must be more money! There must be more money!'" (Lawrence).

Paul discovers he has a magic gift in picking winning racehorses, and makes enough money to erase his family's debts, and then he tragically dies, leaving his parents in much better financial circumstances, which is all that seems to matter in the end. Lawrence writes,

His eyes blazed at her for one strange and senseless second, as he ceased urging his wooden horse. Then he fell with a crash to the ground, and she, all her tormented motherhood flooding upon her, rushed to gather him up. But he was unconscious, and unconscious he remained, with some brain-fever. H e talked and tossed, and his mother sat stonily by his side (Lawrence).….....

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