2001

          D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" explores Paul's madness which stems from his mother's material greed. Her material obsession creates a lack of love and attention - necessities for a healthy childhood development. Paul takes notice of his mother's strong appetite for money. According to his mother, money comes from having luck. This causes Paul to seek luck as an attempt to compel his mother's attention. His search for luck results in delusional behavior where he takes no heed of other people, and gets into the habit of riding his rocking horse, "charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily." (304). He grows an obsession toward riding his rocking horse because he believes it helps him win horse racing bets.  Since this is the only way for Paul to get lucky, he continues riding to the "end of his mad little journey" despite his sisters' unease, and his nurse's disapproval. His toy rocking horse is an object of of his delusion. It represents Paul's abnormal psychological growth and obsession. Before his search for luck, the rocking horse was used solely as a toy. As he begins to search for luck, the horse becomes a drug for Paul that he develops an addiction towards. The horse is the source of his luck, allowing him a quick fix of hope: hope that his mother will show more care and affection. The mother's obsession with money creates Paul's obsession with money as a quest to gain her love.
       Paul's delusional behavior highlights the gravity of his mother's problem. Along with his lack of strong maternal care, are whispers in his home demanding that "there must be more money!" (303). That statement signifies the materialistic mindset of the mother. Paul interprets these demands in a literal sense and decided to fix the problem by bringing in more money. As he begins to get a taste of luck, and becomes acquainted with a considerable amount of money, he gathers up five thousand pounds and asks Uncle Oscar to secretly give the money to his mother. This first attempt to solve his dilemma fails when his mother gives a stoic reaction, "with her voice cold, and absent" (311). The whispers in the house then becomes stentorian, going "mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening" (311). This urges Paul to further try to win even more money. His behavior is a reasonable consequence of his mother's absent love, even after he attempts to solve her problem with being unlucky. Paul focuses primarily on winning more money, so his mother can be satisfied. What he doesn't realize, is that she will never be happy with the money she has. Her need for material objects increases, no matter how much wealth she gains. The whispers in the house represent her mindset because as her hunger for money increases, the volume of the voices also increase. This is a deep-rooted problem that Paul himself cannot alleviate. This causes him to carry out his last act of madness, taking his last ride on his rocking horse, resulting in illness. In his illness, Paul is still preoccupied with winning money, a sacrifice in his well-being for his mother. In the last piece of dialogue with his mother before his death, he says "Mother, did I ever tell you? I'm lucky." His mother replies, "No, you never did." This brings light to the mother's negligence toward her son, because Paul has told his mother before that he was "a lucky person" (304). Her response puts emphasis on the fact that she does not care about Paul, since she does not make the effort to hear the things he has to say.
        Paul's  madness induced illness that ends in death, demonstrates how dire the problem of materialism in his family has become. A life was lost from trying to combat the negligent results of being over-excessively money-oriented. Paul's unhealthily eccentric behavior is a symbol of the impact that materialism can have on one's environment.