The Roles in the Family of Male Children Within the Stories of "The Rocking Horse Winner" and "My Oedipus Complex"

Deyby Valladares
Composition II
Professor Huot
November 14, 2010
It has been the unique contribution of sociology to demonstrate that learning the role of others starts at a young age. A child begins to mimic his or her parents’ actions and that of their environment in order to build up their character. The roles of male children in the family structure of “My Oedipus Complex” and of “The Rocking-Horse Winner” are both similar. Both Larry and Paul did not act like typical children. Their main roles in their family structure were to obtain their mothers attention and keep her love. Larry was at constant war with his father and little brother to have his mothers’ full affection. His desire to obtain the affection he once had from her became overwhelming; he never really had friends because he spent so much time with her. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” Paul is in a different yet similar situation. He was fixated on the idea that if he was lucky and obtained money his mother would love him. However it can be argued that their parents are equally culpable for their children’s actions.
In “My Oedipus Complex” Larry has an authoritative character; because he demands to be treated with love and affection only by his mother. His role in his family structure was simply to keep his father away from his mother. He did not have a normal childhood; where a boy his age should have been playing with cars. Instead of playing with boys his age, he chose to be with his mother all the all the time. His main friends were his feet, he says, “I put my feet out from under the clothes- I called them Mrs. Left and Mrs. Right- and invented dramatic situations for them in which they discussed the problems of the day” (472). Furthermore, subsequent to his father coming back from the war he was “male figure” in the household. This was something that Larry could not stand .His feelings towards his mother were harmless but completely overpowering.
Moreover, Paul from “The Rocking-Horse...