Xin Phong
8th Period

Page 316, The Rocking-Horse Winner

1. Its differences such as the unhappy ending, the boy's apparent mental instability, and the family's distance tells us that the purpose of the story is to give a message and insight to how placing too much importance on material things can split a family apart.
2. The mother in the story differs from typical fairy-tale mother figures in the sense that she only pretends to love her children. Her lack of love towards her family is due to her materialistic desires. She puts on a facade as a good mother as everyone can see. "Everybody else said of her: 'She is such a good mother. She adores her children.'" However, "Only she herself, and her children knew it was not so." Stepmothers in fairy tales such as Cinderella directly oppress the child/children who are their victims, whereas in this story, the mother is negligent to her children in love and attention. Her love for her husband has "turned into dust" because their marriage got to a point where there was always a constant anxiety for the fact that "there must be more money." Her husband is "expensive in his tastes" just like the mother is, and this materialistic need causes the mother to not have much of a relationship with her husband beyond materials. The mother is unlucky because she has the illusion that she and her family never have enough money. She believes that luck is "what causes you to have money." She does not realize that this misfortune of hers is due to her spending habits.
5. The boy's attempt to stop the whispers resulting in more whispers is a plausible irony. The whispers "There must be more money" does not literally mean that there must be more money, but that there must be less materialism in the family or it will be torn apart. The whispers are extra audible during Christmas time because that is when they spend the most money. "They heard it at Christmas when the expensive and splendid toys filled the nursery." (303) In the boy's last speech, he claims to be able to reach luck, when in reality he is cursed with misfortune in the aspect of love and care from his mother.
6. The boy's whole family, including his uncle is either affected or infected by materialism. The mother is infected by materialism because as the things she receives increases, so does her desire for more. When the little boy decided to secretly give her mother a thousand pounds a year for 5 consecutive years, she is not satisfied and asks for the five thousand pounds at once. The father, "Who was always very handsome and expensive in his tastes, seemed as if her would never be able to do anything worth doing." He is as materialistic and "unlucky" as the mother because he also has an unhealthy desire for material things and doesn't see anything worth doing to make more money. Oscar Cresswell, the boy's uncle, is also infected by materialism because he runs off to bet on a horse, "Malabar" as the boy was yelling it's name. The uncle paid no worry to the boy's apparently extreme and odd behavior because he was too preoccupied with making money. All the children in the household are affected by this materialism because they do not get the love from their parents as all children should. The little boy is especially affected because he tries to make money himself in order to give to his mother, so she wouldn't be so discontent. The boy wants to be lucky, unlike his father. He believes that if he was lucky and his mother was content with the amount of money she had, then she would give him the love, care and attention he craves.
8. Preoccupation with material things can cause a parent to fail to provide their children with the love they need to develop healthily.


A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Questions: 2,3,5 & 6
2. The old man and his enormous wings are symbolic of the parents, Pelayo and Elisenda's lack of appreciation for things that are extraordinary and rare. The author stresses details such as his "dirty and half plucked" wings, and his grossly animalistic traits because it makes the old man more human. He lives in human conditions and gives very human emotional responses. It also places emphasis on the parent's ungrateful attitude toward the angel, even though it has given them an opportunity to make a fortunate amount of money.

3. This story is a tale for children because it has unrealistic creatures such as the spider-lady and the angel. It is however, also a tale for adults because its message is how we tend to let great things around us go unappreciated.

5. The fact that this story contains almost no dialogue is appropriate because it gives an element of mystery. We can't infer the motives of the angel and the parents because the dialogue is very limited.

6. The major theme of the story is: we often take for granted the extraordinary and beneficial things that we are surrounded by. The elements provide insights into the way human beings think and behave when the story describes the attitudes and reactions of different people toward the angel.