Ivette: The rocking-horse winner

It is really amazing to see the way the author mixes his own life with an irreal one. This is possible to observe in both stories.The most noticeable in the stories is the existence of a very complex issue for society which is the desire of money. In the first tale, the protagonist is a boy that suffers because of the conflicts that the wish of money brings to his family. That is why he hides his sad feelings by gambling for money.The second story is focused on the relationship between life and death. The relationship is mainly presented by the inhuman work world of the mine and the beautiful and vulnerable, natural world. For example, the important things that we can lose if the attention is payed to money instead of love relationships. Thinking on what is happening in our society, it is part of our common sense notice that money cannot buy happiness and it represents a harmful force as well as alcoholism. Nowadays is really common to observe children working in the streets or even worse begging for money. Is that what we want for our children? I am totally sure the answer is no. So, I think that our effort in schools can make the difference. If we contribute children to be comfortable at least when they are learning, things can improve. D.H Lawrence points out very contemporary issues. I really enjoyed reading both stories because of the many issues that they bring, and that make sense in our society.

I really believe Ivette was able to give the main idea of both short stories. Although it can be appreciated that she described more the rocking-horse winner over the second short story. I think this decision had to do with the interesting topic this story develops and how well it can be connected to our own reality.
I totally agree with the idea of happiness beyond econominal issues. However we need to consider that money rules our life. We need to be aware of the decisions we take in order to keep or gain more money. Nowadays most people are capable of almost anything to "rise in social/economical class". This is the moment when we as future teachers need to do something about it. As Ivette pointed out "we need to make an effort to do things differently". I beleive we need to start from giving a good example to our students and teach them values according to our beliefs and the society in which we live in.
Finally I would like to say that maybe this post could be improved by giving a more explicit relation between both stories because I think the author notoriously takes aspects of his society and values from his own experience, which he beleives are important to share with the readers.