In "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner and "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence, both short stories portray the theme that"Humans cannot bear too much reality."

Imaginary Worlds "Humans cannot bear too much reality. In fact, imaginary worlds are needed to live well" "A Rose for Emily" by the author William Faulkner and "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence both show the key characters creating imaginary worlds to enable them to maintain an outward appearance against reality. Both Emily and the mother in The Rocking- Horse winner have to have the best. Both women have been raised to expect the …

…to move on, he did. Both stories use the device of an object which delivers their fantasy, the rocking horse and the dead man, without these objects the fantasy would be over. Both are inanimate and both decaying. So as the horse grows shabby, the luck (love) gets weaker, the boy gets madder, and the reality that this only hope, his luck is running out kills him, thus the reality is too much to bear.