Rocking-Horse Winner

             Lawrence's short story, "The Rocking-Horse Winner,"" we see a child with many problems. He has a mother who, at the beginning, has no maternal feeling for him and a house that whispers to him of its money problems. However, when we meet Paul, he seems like a happy and fairly well adjusted boy. As the story progresses, Paul's most pervasive problem is revealed. Paul is addicted to gambling "an addiction that will eventually take his young life. One of the characteristics of a gambling addiction is the desire to be wealthy. It is justified to the gambler by saying "everyone wants to be wealthy-. This is a definite theme in "The Rocking-Horse winner-, as the reason that Paul starts to gamble is to stop the house from whispering, "There must be more money!-. After Paul's mother tells him that luck is what makes money, Paul decides that he 2 wants luck and sets off on his rocking horse to find it. He wants to find luck so badly that he becomes obsessed with it, and appears mad when he is charging on his quest to find it. "He would sit on his big rocking-horse, charging madly into space with a frenzy- all in his quest for luck. Eventually, Paul decides that he has indeed found luck, and, when riding his rocking horse, is able to tell the winner of an upcoming horse race. He strikes a deal with the family gardener, Basset, to be his partner, and together they bet on the races that Paul "knows- the winner of. Together, Paul and Basset form a mutually lucrative partnership, and eventually expand it to include Paul's uncle, Oscar Cresswell. Uncle Oscar is very pleased that his young nephew has taken an interest in the horse races, and is given the privilege of Paul's knowledge. As the story progresses, the three partners do very well, and Paul decides that the time has come to share some of it with his mother in the hope that it will stop the house from whispering. Sadly, this only has the opposite affect.