Theme of the "Rocking-horse Winner"/Characterization of the mother

Statement of Theme: A plethora of greed, shared by many and especially for wealth, can lead to one and their family's downfall.

    This is the theme of the story because the family's need for money drove Paul to a point where he died. For example, the mother received 1,000 dollars for her birthday, but instead of taking the thousand and using it for the family's good, she asked for the whole 5,000 and didn't even use it to pay off her debt! That was one of the greediest things that happened in the story. Also, when Paul was going crazy about the horse races, the mother only pretended to care about him because she wanted more money. The mother was so hung up on money that she wasn't able to care about anybody. On page 10 of the story, the mother gets anxious about her children. She probably thought that if she pretended to care, maybe she would deserve the money that her child, Paul, earned. A major contrast in the mother's character is how she felt at the beginning of the book to how she felt towards the end of the book. At the beginning, the author says "...When her children were present, she always felt the center of her heart go hard" (Lawrence, 1). This signifies that she had no adoration for her children. "Then he fell with a crash to the ground, and she, all her tormented motherhood flooding upon her, rushed to gather him up" (Lawrence, 11). This shows a major growth in character from the beginning of the book. She suddenly has all this motherhood taking hold of her that she never had before. The mother's major downfall was the loss of her son. She has all the money, but no son to share it with.