“The Rocking-Horse Winner“ opens with the distant, singsong voice of a fairy tale: “There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck.“ So begins an ancient tale. A brave young boy is challenged by his true love. He rides off into a dreamland where he struggles and succeeds at attaining secret knowledge. He brings the secret knowledge back and with it wins treasure houses of gold, …showed first 75 words of 949 total…

…showed last 75 words of 949 total…meaning carries the same ironic denouncement: The quest for absolute control leads to the loss of control. The mother‘s house, which she wants to be luxurious and proper, is haunted by crass whispers. She and her son, striving to control love and fortune, are compulsive, obsessed; Gdog dies and thereby loses all chance for the very human love and contact he sought. The mother loses the very means by which her fortune was assured.