English Literature Compare and Contrast Essay

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Where Connell emphasized myriad consumer items like silk pajamas and finely tailored suits, Lawrence highlights two items: the rocking horse that gives the story its title and money. Before the protagonist, Paul, is even introduced Lawrence attests to the significance of money (in reference to Paul's mother): "There must be more money, there must be more money" (1). Shortly thereafter, the protagonist furiously rides his rocking chair, which endows him with great authority; after riding the horse, Paul is endowed with a castrating gaze: in response to his "big, hot, blue eyes," "The uncle stirred and laughed uneasily" (4). Lawrence takes a complex perspective toward the rocking chair; while it supplies Paul with greater authority, it also makes him forceful to the point of eliciting trepidation in the other characters.

After the rocking horse episode, Paul leaves with his uncle to the race horse -- the parallel between the toy horse and the race horse is significant in that it alludes to continuity between the toys that one plays with as a child and the ways in which one "plays" as an adult. Additionally, Lawrence places great emphasis on luck; early in the story, Paul's mother states that luck "is what causes you to have money." However, although Paul wins an ample sum of money at the racetrack, it is not due to luck but rather to the authority that he has acquired from riding the toy horse. The implication is that by devoting oneself to boyish consumer items (toys, etc.) one can successfully navigate the adult "toy world" of the racetrack. Paul is able to manipulate his uncle into spending money with ease, to the point that his uncle refers to him as "Master.

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" Through the alarming ease with which Paul is able to transition from the child horse to the adult horse, Lawrence wryly critiques the wealthy, "lucky" upper class society to which Paul's mother aspires at the start of the novel as being childish. Although Paul's immediate family (notably, his mother) is guilty of the same superficial preoccupation with money evinced by Paul's uncle, Paul's ability to manipulate his uncle with no gambling experience demonstrate the emptiness of material wealth. Paul's wealthy uncle is gullible to the point of believing his fabricated accounts, and Lawrence (similar to Connell) demonstrates the necessity for viewing the world with a critical perspective.

Both "The Most Dangerous Game" and "The Rocking Horse Winner" address materiality and masculinity. In the former, material possessions are subordinated to male heroisim and intellect; Rainsford utilizes his superior mind (which he has used to write hunting books) and outsmarts General Zaroff, who possesses everything one could ever want but relies on dogs to defeat his adversary. Meanwhile, Lawrence addresses the role of materiality through a socioeconomic lens; the furious, overdetermined gaze that Paul acquires through playing with his rocking horse grants him the power to win vast sums of money in one day and manipulate his uncle into satisfying his every whim. Although the protagonists in each story are vastly different -- most notably, one is a child while the other is an adult -- they similarly expose the fragility of their apparently more powerful opposition. Both stories demonstrate the flimsy, hollow authority of those with material….....

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