Paulina Karalekas
English
Ms.Kennedy
Every decision you make has consequences, and you have to live with whatever those consequences are. Making decisions is the hardest part in life and is something that throughout your lifetime everyone must face with. Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl and the Rocking Horse Winner by DH Lawrence are two stories that the characters must face decision-making. Both these stories use the literary elements of characterization and conflict so prove this.
In Lamb of the Slaughter the characterization is indirect. It reveals her actions and how Mary deals with her conflict she is faced, and the choices she makes. In the beginning she is a regular housewife that soon changed when her husband gave her the bad news. Eventually she became a self-conscious, manipulative woman and made her decisions about what she was going to do to her husband very quickly. She soon becomes unstable and a maniac. After killing her husband and the police arrived she became very manipulative and gave the police some drinks and slowly got rid of the lamb she hit her husband with by serving it for diner. At the end she giggles this shows us that she has become independent and made her own decisions on what she thought she should do for herself not other people.
Conflict is also used in this story. Patrick came home from work and burdened Mary with the news that he will be leaving him. The conflict she is facing is being alone and pregnant. Mary takes matters in her own hands and decides to kill her husband.
In the Rocking Horse Winner the conflict related to the fact that the family does not have enough money to support their needs and desires. The young boy names Paul tries to win his mothers love by gambling for money by finding out the horses winning races. The author also uses symbolism, which is the wooden rocking horse. Paul is determined to win money by finding the winners. The rocking horse slowly ends up taking Pauls life. The whispering in the house also symbolizes the families desire to stay in the upper class. The kids are more worried about the money because they are the only ones who can hear the mothers whispering. Even after Paul gave the mother money she was still never satisfied.
In life many of the decisions a person makes can either create or destroy them. Sometimes those decisions are difficult and other times there easy. No matter what choice you make In the end is a life lesson learned.
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