Extended analysis paper on The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence Essay

Extended analysis paper on The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence - Essay Example Early in the story the boy Paul has a talk with his mother about money. But the talk is not the usual mother-son conversation that promotes hard work and ingenuity. The mother advocates the avenue of easy money by the use of luck. She carries the definition a step farther as she blurs the line between money and luck. "Filthy lucre does mean money," said the mother. "But its lucre, not luck" (Lawrence). The use of the words filthy lucre interjects an almost obscene sense of money and wealth. The mother continues her idolization of the character trait of being lucky. She insults Pauls father and says "...its better to be born lucky than rich" (Lawrence). She then tells Paul that his own father is "very unlucky" marking him as a failure as a father and a husband. These images are burned into the mind of Paul at this young age and tempers his value system throughout the rest of his short life. The mother has almost no connection with her husband or family. She occupies the house in body but not in spirit. The household had healthy children and a modest income, yet it was squandered by the mothers view of it. Lawrence describes it as "at the centre of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody". It was love that Paul craved and needed, and it was his mothers love that he would spend the story in search of. Because she was distant and disconnected, she would be easily satisfied with material goods, money, and a lust for it. Paul could sense the emptiness in his mother and her need for a husband, luck, and money. Pauls early attempt at fulfilling his mothers needs, and thus replacing the father, is seen in his early experience on the rocking horse. Lawrence describes Pauls quest to satisfy his mothers need for money, luck, and sexual satisfaction. There is a scene where he is furiously riding his rocking horse striking it with a whip that he had gotten

Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden - Essay Example Shin Dong-hyuk has undergone these horrors, which has made him unprepared to live in the contemporary world, finding it difficult to adjust to a totally different environment with freedom. Being psychologically free refers to freedom from attachment and from identifying with anything. In addition, psychological freedom also refers to when an individual is a being, rather than a knowing or a doing. Because of his experiences in prison camp 14, which have resulted in classical symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and Stockholm syndrome, Shin has been unable to gain psychological freedom. Shin Dong-hyuk was born in a North Korean prison camp and lived under harsh and inhuman conditions for the first twenty-four years of his life. This was a period material, physical, and emotional deprivation for Shin, who underwent physical abuse and torture before making a successful escape from the prison camp (Harden 12). However, he escaped with scars consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, such as flashbacks, nightmares, and panic attacks, which have denied him psychological freedom. Although he has received treatment for his posttraumatic stress disorder, he still finds himself in the grip of anger and fear, while he does not want to be alone with his thoughts for a long time because they trouble him (Harden 14). Shin has been unable to attain psychological freedom because of his trauma’s fundamental psychological effect, which is the shattering of his innocence. His experiences in prison camp 14 have led him to lose faith in any meaning, predictability, and safety in the world or any safe place that he can retreat to, including his family, which reinforces his feeling of isolation (Harden 167). His body or mind did not process his traumatic experiences at the prison camp, unlike other experiences. This is most likely due to their shocking and overwhelming