Sin In D. H. Lawrence's The Rocking-Horse Winner

The theory of art allows for meaning to be extracted from works of literature. This theory allows us to understand and analyze works, and explain how they are made, and for what purpose. The origin of these works comes from the fact that all people experience the world, and from their experiences, the information taken in since birth, develop a worldview, i.e. a set of beliefs based on personal experience of how the world works. A subset of all the people are artists, such as authors. The works of art generated by artists are expressions of their worldview, brought to light by their art, as a way to communicate their worldview to others. This art includes authors’ literary works, which can be analyzed through tools, such as characters, which …show more content…
Through analysis with this theory of art, the theme of sin in D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is apparent through the adults’ corruption by greed, causing the death of a child in their pursuit of financial gain. Additionally, Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” demonstrates that sinful and non-spiritualistic beliefs will result in a loss of both ability and moral character, while “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” shows ignoring one’s sin will always lead to …show more content…
The grandmother, despite being religious, is guilty of the cardinal sin of hubris, regarding herself and her worldview. This is especially clear in her conversation with Red Sam, her pride becomes blatantly obvious. As he is talking about how “‘[Y]ou don’t know who to trust, … [a]in’t that the truth?’ [she responds] ’People are certainly not nice like they used to be’” (189). In her response, she is extremely quick to transform Red Sam’s observation that some people are untrustworthy into a fact about how people were nicer in the past. By stating that people were nicer, she is alluding to moral character. She chose not to use the word trustworthy, as that is limited to only trust, and to use the word nice, a reflection of moral character as a whole. She also chose to use the phrase “like they used to be,” alluding to a past time and past group of people who were morally superior and nicer. By alluding to an older generation, she is able to pridefully include herself in with the nicer and superior people. Given that Red Sam only asked a rhetorical question, it becomes clear that she does have a sinful amount of pride, yet, surprisingly, is simultaneously unaware of her sinful worldview, viewing it instead as incontrovertible fact. The Misfit, however, is not so