Chapter 3: The Rocking-horse Winner

In the beginning of the story, young Paul is restless since his mother had told him that they were not lucky as they didn’t have sufficient money to own a car and luxuries. Deep down, young Paul had a feeling that his mother was not as happy as she looked. She blamed the father of young Paul for being unlucky and making her unlucky, too, as she was married to him.

Paul’s mother was not satisfied with the yearly birthday gift of 1,000 pounds for five years as she was very unsatisfied with her life. She always felt that she should receive good treatment in life, which resulted in less interest in Paul’s birthday gift. However, Paul heard whispers of more money from the house.

It can be implied from the story, The Rocking-horse Winner, that Paul was a child who suffered from autism and also Oedipus complex. This story portrays Paul who is at the beginning of his teenage years and is anxious to stop the sounds that were whispered in his house that “there must be more money”. Paul was eager to bring happiness and joy to his mother through money and wished to take the place of his father in her life. As he grew up, he bet on racing horses in order to earn more money by gambling. When Hester found that Paul was involved in horse racing, she asked her brother and gardener to keep him away from it. She understood how much stress Paul must have undergone while he grew up. She did not know the worry which was consuming and eating him was his mother. With more eagerness to win, he lost in many of the races. Before Derby, Paul grew worried about making more money for his mother and showing his luck to her. As she was worried, she quit the party in the middle in order to see her son healthy and safe. But it was the last time she saw her son.

In this story, Paul is considered to be an unfortunate child. He had some indications of his disintegrating health, which implies his mental condition. He suffered from autism and needed more care and attention from his family. All the time, he heard his house whispering that there must be more money. Paul was also schizophrenic as he was listening to sounds which did not exist and was also oedipal. All these factors were leading him to the inevitable, even though he had no knowledge of what he was actually going through. He tried hard to make more money for the sake of his mother. He was eager to show her that he was lucky enough to earn and the one who deserved all of her love. In the Derby, he earned about 80,000 pounds by guessing that Malabar would win, using his sixth sense. Further, it worsened his health so badly that he died after a few days.