Lesson 5: Poetry on Gambling

Tom Beatty in Comparison with The Rocking Horse Winner

It is that life "stacks the cards to catch your weakness". Paul's weakness would be that he keeps hearing from the house that his family needed money. He finds it hard to refrain from gambling as he feels that he needs to prove to his mother that he is lucky. The house doesn't help conquer his weakness by constantly whispering that the family needs money. He believed that when he sat on his rocking horse in his house, his luck would show and he would bet on the right horse. After awhile of constant stress from the house and gambling, he finally gave in to all that stress and fainted, which led to his death.

As for the "gives you 70 years to play", Paul had a fraction of that time. But even with so little time, he manages to get lucky and win. Even his death was, somewhat a lucky event for him. Before the obsession got any worse, he was lucky to have died. If not, once his luck rubbed off, he would keep gambling to try and regain his former lucky glory.

The Green Clothes and Paper

Tips from Dr Soo, and his massive gains. Dry Lips after sharp drops in stock worth. Green Clothes would represent the colour of the American Dollar-money, green-eyed with green and envy.

One-dollar Gambler and Ah Boh from "Lottery"

The "blind man" would refer to Ah Boh himself. Blind to the advice of others. Ah Boh chose to blind himself from the real world and indulge in the world of gambling. The Number 13 is considered unlucky by some, which means that he was supersitious, just like Ah Boh who would go to road accidents to jot down the car number plates. The Zero dollars to bet also relate to Ah Boh in the sense that they were in dire straits and were running out of money.