Name:___________________________________________Per:______Date:_________
11 CP: “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence
Page 1007
Do Now: Do you believe in luck? Explain your answer with examples.
Directions: Answer the following question in complete sentences. This short story will
be in the final exam.
1. What causes the "hard little place" of the center of the mother's heart?
2. How does her attitude affect her children?
3. Although the children’s father is mentioned in the story, he never actually appears.
Why might Lawrence have excluded him from the story?
4. What causes the whispering Paul and his sisters hear?
5. Why does it frighten them?
6. Why do the adults fail to hear the whispering?
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7. Why does Paul become so determined to have luck?
8. How does he go about getting it?
9. What causes the whispering to grow louder after Paul gives his mother five thousand
pounds?
10. How does Paul react to the increased whispering?
11. Shortly before Paul dies, his mother hears him on his rocking horse. What
similarities exist between the effect of the noise made by the rocking horse on her and the
effect of the house's whispering on Paul?
12. There are two important symbols is the story: the whispering and the rocking horse.
Explain the symbolic significance of each.
13. Defend or criticize this statement: "Money is the root of all evil" is an adequate
statement of the theme of "The Rocking-Horse Winner.”
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