The Rocking-Horse Winner
The mythological criticism focuses on patterns that reoccur overtime. This criticism combines mixtures of different field, such as, psychology, anthropology, history, and religion. Archetype is a symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response (Kennedy 693). Mythological critics look at these stories to provide understanding of human conditions. Mythological criticism gives you a symbolic understanding of the work.
There are many hidden meanings in the story. Paul receives a horse as a gift, and it gives him the ability to predict who will win races. This shows luck, greed, and how materialistic objects have a toll on people. Paul gets greedy, and it ultimately tears him apart. It is clear that he only wants love, and a sense of belonging. The author uses archetypes to display the theme through actions and words. Money, luck, and greed are key factors that create discrepancies in the world. The mother seems to want to have it all, and be fortunate; however, she lacks the emotional connection with her family because she feels they are unfortunate.
Paul’s mother is seen as a caring, devoted, and lovable person who cherishes her children, but she looks upon them because they aren’t fortunate. The struggle to provide for her family made her hate everything including her family. She was not satisfied with her marriage or economic status, which put a burden on her relationship with her children. Paul feels his mother’s unhappiness, and wants to do anything to make her happy. The money struggle made their family fall apart. The mother did all she could to provide, and she felt like she failed.
Paul wanted to help his family, so he rode the horse to envision who would win the race. Once, people was aware of his gift they started to get close to him. Paul uncle starts to take advantage of him. Paul’s uncle start taking him to races with hidden intentions of getting money out of it. Paul’s mother hears of it, and...