IT lesson 4: Gambling

Paper

1. In the story, ‘Paper’ refers to the paper gains in the stock market. The paper house which was burnt at the grave. Although, the couple in the story had made a profit after the shares they bought had increased in value, it was only paper gains.

Tay Soon wanted a big beautiful house all his life that he directed all his energies and devotion towards his goal. He used his savings to buy stocks hoping to gain more money to achieve his dream house. In the end, he did achieve his dream house, but it was only made of paper and it was burnt at his grave.

The paper gains were of no use to the living just like the paper house which was of no use to the dead. If the couple had not been greedy perhaps they would have become millionaires. They could have sold the shares to get the money to build their dream house.

One should never be too greedy and take high risks as things can be very unpredictable. Many people become addicted to gambling and are unable to get themselves out. He went on hoping that the situation may become better but it did not. Anxiety and depression eventually killed him.

Lottery

2. Ah Boh was obsessed with gambling.. She would try to recall any dream of the previous night and work out what it meant. For her, every object or event signified some number, for example, a spider meant the number 3 and an act of defecation meant the number 10. She believed that objects or scenes in her dreams indicated the prize-winning numbers.

Ah Boh once weighed a cat just to get a number for the draw. She had also written some numbers on pieces of paper and placed them on a baby. She then waited eagerly for the first piece to roll off the baby. She even went to the extent of taking down the license plate numbers of vehicles involved in accidents and used these numbers to buy lottery.

Ah Boh was also very superstitious. Every morning, she prayed for good luck She had obsessive interest for new-born babies, children celebrating birthdays and newly-weds, as she believed they were supposed to bring luck.

The Rocking Horse Winner

3 I feel Paul’s mother was responsible for his death. His mother was incapable of showing love and was obsessed with status and material wealth. He sought for her love and wanted to silence the voice that whispered “There must be more money!” Paul found that he could predict the winner of the horse race by rocking his wooden horse so he gambled to earn money hoping to please his mother. Once Paul won and sent 5000 pounds to his mother, she merely remarked ‘quite moderately nice’. Sadly, the strain and the stress killed him, yet he thought he was lucky to have the special power.