What motivates each main character? What sets Pauls quest apart ...

[storky111]

What motivates each main character? What sets Pauls quest apart fromthat of the others?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

The family members in Lawrences story harbor a number of secrets. Whatare they?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[Galvarado142]

Answer to Question 1

• It is the desire for more money that motivates them all. Perhaps the most blatant evidence of the familys obsession with riches appears in Uncle Oscars attempt to console his sister after her sons death: My God, Hester, youre eighty-odd thousand to the good and a poor devil of a son to the bad (par. 244) as if he were enumerating her assets and liabilities on an imaginary balance sheet.

Pauls frenzied pursuit of money differs from the greed of the others in that he wants wealth not for himself but for his mother. Clearly he hopes that, by being luckier than his father, he will win his mothers love and attention.

Answer to Question 2

• The mothers secret is that at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody (par. 1). Pauls secret is that, by furiously riding his wooden rocking-horse, he is often able to predict which horses will win races. Bassetts secret, and Uncle Oscars, is that they profit from Pauls predictions, even while the boy is on his deathbed. Their winnings are kept secret. Paul gives his mother 5,000 pounds but does it anonymously. The house itself whispers a secret, There must be more money (par. 5, 6, 181). The three children hear the whisper, but no one talks about it.