humans to worship wealth, such as the warning from Ecclesiastes 5:10: "Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless." The parallels to Paul's mother are striking.

Uncle Oscar is much like Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. Uncle Oscar is willing to use Paul's gift in order to gain a better standing for himself. He certainly isn't the boy's devoted protector, and in the final scene, when Paul is nearly dead, it is noted that Oscar doesn't even come.

It is also worth noting that Paul hovers near death for three days after his final sacrificial horse ride; Christ remained in the grave for three days before rising from the dead. Just before dying, Paul utters the name of one final winner, and Bassett comes to tell him that he has now made around 80,000 pounds for his mother. (This would translate into almost five million pounds today.) However, his mother's acquisition of the money she's dreamed of doesn't bring her hope, as did the death and resurrection of Christ; instead, Paul's death shows that her "meaningless" quest has cost her the life of her child.

These biblical allegories show the futility of trying to make one's life meaningful through the acquisition of wealth.

An allegory is a story in which the characters, symbols, and events can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning for the purpose of teaching a moral or lesson to the audience. D. H. Lawrence's celebrated short story "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is an allegory which concerns the futility of pursuing money in order to find happiness. In the story, Paul's mother, Hester, lacks the capacity to love her children and attempts to find contentment and solace in purchasing material items. However, Hester cannot keep up with her living expenses and is continually in search of more money. Her children recognize her lack of love, and Paul can also hear the house whispering for more money. In an attempt to stop the whispering home and earn his mother's affection, Paul uses his supernatural ability to win money.

On the literal level, the story is about a young boy who possesses the supernatural ability to determine the winning horses of certain races and tries to earn his mother's love by giving her the money he wins from betting on horse races. Sadly, Hester is never fulfilled with the money her son wins, and her feelings towards him never develop or materialize. No matter how much money Paul wins, it is never enough for his greedy, superficial mother. Tragically, Paul dies attempting to win more money to appease Hester and silence the whispering home.

Paul's rocking-horse is an important symbol in the story and represents the vain pursuit of wealth. No matter how hard Paul rides the rocking-horse, it does not go anywhere. Similarly, no matter how much money Paul wins, it is never enough, and his family is never happy. Allegorically, Lawrence's story highlights the hollowness of pursuing money in hopes of becoming happy and content. What Paul's family lacks is love, which is significantly more important than money. By focusing on money, Hester becomes more distant from her children and less content. Overall, the short story is a cautionary tale regarding the futility of pursuing money in hopes of finding true happiness, joy, and love.

An allegory is a story that has a symbolic (usually moral or political) meaning that goes beyond the basic plot. For example, John Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress could be read on a plot level as simply a story of a man who happens to be named Christian going on a journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, but the story has an underlying meaning that makes it an allegory: it is not just about a physical journey from point A to point B but a vivid description of the interior moral journey all devout Christians make as they struggle for salvation.

Likewise, "The Rocking-Horse Winner" can, on one level, be read just as a supernatural story of a little boy who kills himself because he gets too obsessed with his ability to predict winners of horse races through riding his rocking horse.

The "The Rocking-Horse Winner," however, is more than just a supernatural tale. It is an allegory because of its deeper moral message. Paul stands for any little boy who yearns with all his heart to earn his mother's love. Hester, his mother, stands for any woman (or adult) who values money over love because she has no ability to love. The story shows the destructive effects of a home without love and the inability of money to make up for that lack.

This is a great question because it points towards the fantasy nature of this story. However, you need to remember, allegories are stories where events, characters and actions all stand for something beyond themselves. Normally characters and setting will represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Whilst it appears the story is almost fable-like in pointing towards the dangers of greed and its impact on not just yourself but those nearest and dearest to you, it is clear that we can not view this story as an allegory.

However, it is clear that Lawrence uses many of the conventions of fantasy in this excellent short story. Consider the many fantasy elements--the repeated whispering of the house, the possession (if that is what is is) of Paul by the rocking-horse, the way that with more and more success Paul becomes more and more deranged. It is clear by contrast that a typical fairy tale ends happily, but here Paul dies and his mother is left with the consequences of her greed. We can thus say that Lawrence adopts the trappings of the fantasy only to subvert them to his own purpose - the shock ending stresses Lawrence's point about the evils of materialism.

So, this story cannot be considered as an allegory, but you are right in identifying that Lawrence deliberately adopts the genre of the fairy tale - but only so that he can subvert it to emphasise his message and theme.