The Rocking-Horse Winner

"And even as he lay dead, his mother heard her brother's voice saying to her: 'My God, Hester, you're eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he's best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking-horse to find a winner' " (719).

Just because of this line I feel people want to pin some blame on the uncle. Like he is so bad for saying this. What he is saying is not really wrong, it is just true. He isn't saying it's a good thing. He is really just stating a fact and then reflecting on the boy's life. He feels bad for him because something made him crazy. The uncle didn't make the boy gamble, no one did but maybe his mother through some strange psychological effect. People say the uncle used the boy, but this does not show in the text. The uncle is in fact reluctant of the boys gambling. If anyone is at fault it's the mother for not loving her child and making him feel as if he needed to be lucky for his mother. The child felt as if he had to make enough money for her expensive tastes and in some strange way be the bread winner because her father couldn't. The child takes on the roll of the father in this way, and the father should have been there to stop this. The child lacks proper care from his parents. Instead he is cared for by servants and nurses. Such negligence on the parents part ultimately leads to his death. The mother is out at a party while her son is at home dying because he's riding the horse. She should have been home watching him.