
In the short story “Rocking Horse Winner,” the author D.H. Lawrence shows what happiness can and cannot attain through two themes when they are mixed with money. In the story the main Character Paul asks his mother if they are lucky. He and his mother discuss about how money in their family equates to luck and how unfortunately they are unlucky, or have no money, which also leads to his mother talking about how she is unhappy. Paul the main character says he is lucky, while his mother brushes it off as a comment by a five year old. It turns out Paul is able to correctly guess racehorse winners while riding on his rocking horse. He asks his Uncle Oscar to help him bet along with the family Butler. Paul wins five thousand dollars, and he gives it anonymously to his mother through a donation, making happy him with his life. He then goes on a dry streak where he guesses the outcomes of the races incorrectly for months. Paul finally is able to guess a horse race correctly, but before he does his mother sees him on his rocking horse where there are bright lights flashing coming from him, his mother pulls Paul from his rocking horse, but the damage was already done to Paul. Paul is made sick from this event and lies on his deathbed, but told he guessed correctly by a family gardener. Paul dies later that night, but died satisfied knowing he was able to correctly guess the winner of the horse race. There are two themes that are present throughout this story. The first one being happiness with ones life through the ability to buy and pay things with money. The other theme that is present in the story is the satisfaction with ones current living situation, again with the ability to pay for things with money. Lawrence is able to show this through questioning if whether or not money really does buy happiness, and if whether or not money can lead to a satisfying life. 

In the “The Rocking Horse Winner,” One of the main themes that sticks out in the short story is happiness. Many people say that money cannot buy happiness, yet that is not what Paul and his Mother believe. In fact Paul goes out of his way to buy his mother happiness, and his Mother unknowingly accepts his gift. This is one of the most important themes that occur in the short story, because it is what pushes the story forward. In an article titled “Money Buys Happiness When Spending Fits Our Personality,” is an article about how spending money can lead to happiness, it just needs to be spent right.  The article states, “In a field study using more than 76,000 bank-transaction records, we found that individuals spend more on products that match their personality, and that people whose purchases better match their personality report higher levels of life satisfaction.” This is able to help back up the claim of how Paul and his mother are spending their money. Paul spends his money to please his mother this matches his personality. He is able to spend money in order to make his mother happy, which by how he acts the reader can see how it makes Paul happy, this is able to buy Paul’s happiness, which is what fits his personality. It is apparent that Paul would much rather have the people around him happy, spending his money to help those around him. This is what pushes the story along and leads to Paul’s unfortunate demise, but it helps push the overall meaning of the story. Paul’s mother spends money on items to flaunt her wealth. This is against her personality, one can come to this conclusion at the end of the story. Paul’s mother is horrified and depressed that Paul dies, and instead of spending money on Paul or her family, she instead spends money on things that flaunt wealth, which actually makes her depressed. If Pauls mother had spent money on things that would please Paul and his family, Paul might not have died, because she and Paul’s family would not be poor. In return Paul would not have to use the rocking horse and eventually die, instead he would be able to spend time with his mother and make her happy through that. Another quote of the article is “This effect of psychological fit on happiness was stronger than the effect of individuals' total income or the effect of their total spending.” This is another statement that is able to show how Paul’s mother was happier when she just had money, rather than when she had spent it all, so spending the money that she had went against her personality. She was unhappy when there was a lack of money, rather than a surplus of it, creating a sense of depression that spread. This is also why she wanted the uncle Oscar around, he was able to show what is what like to have money again, since he did not spend money.

The second article that is able to talk about money and happiness is “How much happiness does money buy? Income and subjective well-being in New Zealand.” This article is about how in most families the more a family makes the happier they seems to be. This directly opposes a previous article that discusses how families with more money were less happy and families with more money are less happy. This goes against the idea of Money can’t buy happiness, yet science has proven this idea wrong. People in society have claimed for years that money cannot buy happiness. This is however proven wrong in not only in “How much happiness does money buy? Income and subjective well-being in New Zealand,” while yes it could be argued that this is an experiment that only took place in New Zealand, it is an idea that people all around the world preach and talk about, so it is still relevant in a setting like America. In this article the author states “Consistent with previous research, household income had positive logarithmic associations with subjective quality of life and happiness.” This quote is able to reinforce the idea that the total income was making Paul and his mother happier. Paul’s mother was happy when she had money, she was no longer in debt, and she was able to buy new things to flaunt her wealth and allow her to live her fancy lifestyle. Paul was unhappy because he does not have money to make his mother happy. He is unhappy when they have little money because of the fact that his mother is unhappy, this is able to link back to the article because in the article it talks about how people with less money are usually happier with their life. So when all the sudden Paul gets money he, and his mother are happy, because of the fact that they are now rich, This is able to prove the Article correct again proving that money is able to buy happiness, because Paul was able to use money to make his mother happy. When Paul’s mother has the thought of not having money, even when talking to her own son, she could not help but become depressed, this is because they are so dependent on money. This is an insane psychological dependence on money that can be proven through this article. The New Zealand Journal of Psychology published this article, so this is not how people perceive to be having but it is how they actually feel it is proven that humans feel this, proven through research. This is how the reader knows and can trust that the article and short story are related, because of the fact that this is psychologically proven to be fact. Not only that but it is also displayed in the story, so humans naturally see this occur in society, and write about it. This is a subconscious phenomenon that Lawrence at the time probably did not even realize he was talking about. 

The second theme that is present in the story is satisfaction, this theme is first shown in the journal, “The Satisfaction With Life Scale” which is a journal written by Ed Diener, Robert A Emmons, Randy J. Larsen, and Sharon Griffin. In this article the authors had made a scale that measures how happy, or how satisfied someone is with their life. First lets look at Paul’s Mother. She is very unsatisfied with her life. She has continually complained and been upset with her life. She would earn a very low score. Paul’s Mother even complains about the money problems of the family to Paul, who is only a child. Paul’s Mother is not satisfied because she has a lack of money, this is not only effecting her, but her family with Paul and everyone else around her having fleeting happiness. Being so depressed Paul’s Mother asks for even more money when given some, and she is still not satisfied, she is not satisfied with what she has because she is in so much debt, so she cannot pay it off. This is an example of never being satisfied with life, someone who cannot find happiness with whatever they get, because they are too far in a hole. Lets now look at Paul. He is also unsatisfied with life initially. He learns that there is a lack of money in the house, and he immediately wants to do something, he is unsatisfied with his mother’s unhappiness in life. He goes and starts to bet on horse races. When he gets that money and is able to give it to his mother, Paul is satisfied with his life even though he was unsatisfied not too long ago. He is able to provide his mother with money creating happiness in not only her life, but his as well also creating a satisfaction in Paul’s life, because he is able to provide for his mother. This is an example of someone who is able to become satisfied with his or her life. Paul sees and recognizes that there is no money so he gets some, which makes his mother happy, and in turn makes him happy. This is an example of becoming satisfied by changing his life. Paul is able to create happiness for his mother, so he is in turn satisfied with what he is doing in his life. Paul later in the story becomes unsatisfied with his life when his mother once again loses money, so he bets and wins money again. Even on his own deathbed Paul is excited about winning money for his mother because it is what will bring him true satisfaction in life. Paul is able to become satisfied with his life once again, this satisfaction is what keeps Paul bright and happy, even on his death bed at the age of only five years old. This satisfaction is what drives Paul to go and push forward in life, which provides him with a certain satisfaction that nothing else can, providing happiness for his mother.  While Paul’s Mother has no satisfaction, and she is so trapped in debt that she can reach no satisfaction wither her life, causing her to just halt all progress that she could be making in her life. 

In the second journal about satisfaction it talks about how desires can lead to unsatisfying or a satisfying life, it is called “Wanting, having, and satisfaction: Examining the role of desire discrepancies in satisfaction with income,” written by Crawford Solberg, Emily; Diener, Ed; Wirtz, Derrick; Lucas, Richard E.; Oishi, Shigehiro. In this study they performed three different studies testing the happiness of people based on how satisfied they are based off of their income. In the story Paul is not satisfied at one point in his life because he stops winning. Paul is no longer able to provide for his mother and give her money, on top of that he is actually losing the money that he does have. This puts Paul in a state of not depression, but unsatisfied with his overall life. He is no longer as he would put “Lucky.” Paul has continually lost race after race, this income is not enough for Paul to give to his mother, and in return make her happy. This lifestyle makes Paul unsatisfied with his life and start to hate his life. It is not until Paul is able to finally win again that he is satisfied with his life again, because he is able to do the only thing that is truly satisfying to him, provide money for his mother. Paul is on his deathbed, and while in his sickly state all he can think about and ask about is the horse race, for if he wins even if he dies he would be able to provide more for his mother. The moment Paul is told he guessed correctly, he brightens up when he is told that he predicted one final race showing that he is satisfied with his life allowing him to die happy. He was also satisfied when he did have money, because Paul was able to provide money to his mother. It was when Paul had finally been able to give his mother money, and then he is satisfied, this is one of the first times the reader can infer that Paul is satisfied because he is so young. Paul’s mother unfortunately until she has spends all of the money. Paul is distraught and unsatisfied with his life, because of the fact that he is not able to give his mother more money. Then when he tries to attain more money he is unable to leading to him being unsatisfied with his overall life, wanting more and trying to do something to get more. Since Paul is so young when he is unsatisfied it is instead for a much longer period of his life, because he has not experienced all that his life has to offer. The satisfaction of having a higher income was much better for Paul and his mother both, because they were both happy with how their lives were going, rather than when they had no money at all.

Rocking Horse winner is a harrowing tale of how chasing anything can lead to death. People will chase drugs to get high and be happy, for Paul his drugs was all the money that he was able to successfully accumulate over his time that he gambled. In the story Paul has to jump through may hoops that an adult would not be willing to, but as a five year old Paul is willing to, all in the name of happiness and satisfaction. Paul does what he does to make his mother happy and satisfied, which in return makes Paul happy. This story does touch on how money can buy happiness, because satisfying purchases can lead to a happier life as the journal “Wanting, having, and satisfaction: Examining the role of desire discrepancies in satisfaction with income.” Paul is able to find his true happiness amongst depression that surrounds him everyday, which is insane considering Paul, is merely five years old. He is willing to chase the idea of a happy perfect family because he is set on a goal and will not let anyone stop him. While in the end money does buy happiness, this story is about more than that. It is about chasing what makes someone happy or satisfied, for Paul it was money, for Paul’s mother it was having money. This economy of give and receive was caustic to Paul and in a sense his mother, because it led Paul’s mother to grieving over her sons death, and Paul’s death. The idea that humans will do whatever they can to be happy is prevalent in this story, and it is the heart of what Lawrence is trying to say.  Lawrence is saying that humans are willing to put a value of money over a human life, almost to say that a human life can be bought by money, because it is in fact possible to buy happiness with money. 
