Emergency IT Lesson 5: Poetry on Gambling

Poems Involved: Tom Beatty, The Green Clothes and One-Dollar Gambler.

Q1. You have to do a brief comparison of each poem to a short story in approximately 100 words.

‘Tom Beatty’ emphasises on the mental burden gambling brings. It reveals the thoughts of a gambler, and how very willing all the gamblers are in winning the cash. Some would earn, others would lose, but in the end they’re all losers – they lost the feeling of leading a happy life.

‘The Green Clothes’ depict the agony and determination of a gambler. It depicts how strong-willed gamblers are, and how tense a gambling scenario is. It also shows how gambling never ceases to make gamblers feel dissatisfied with what they have, and how badly they want to recover their self-made loses.

‘One-Dollar Gambler’ signifies how money could be spent better and how easily it can be lost in a game of betting. Eventually, not only does the gambler lose his cash, he couldn’t spend on those things his money was capable of spending on, and he feels a strong sense of disappointment.

Q2. Show how the poem Tom Beatty could be compared to The Rocking Horse Winner. In studying the poem, note that the opera house is really life and when He makes the rules it’s either the Lord or perhaps the devil. Beatty suggests that everyone has about 70 years, but Paul in The Rocking Horse Winner had much less time. Explain what Paul’s weakness was, how the cards were stacked against him and do you think Paul was lucky not to live to be an old man fumbling the cards, leaden-eyed and whining about his losses?

Paul’s weakness lay in his quick addiction to gambling and betting. He quickly turned his hobby into his life and was preoccupied by nothing except for two things – gambling, and betting. He was also weak in terms of not being conscious that he is really getting addicted; he just continues.

The cards stacking against him are a figurative term showing the great pressures and uncertainty that gambling brings along. It shows that gambling is never an easy game to play; never an easy match to win.

Paul was lucky to have died earlier in his life in this instance. Should he have lived to a ripe old age, he would get more and more engrossed with the betting so greatly that it would most probably affect anyone who knows him. Even as a boy, Paul has already caused his mother to worry for him. Surely he would be in riches, for he has no problem with earning a wealth from gambling; but if he had lived longer, he would only be more interested in gambling as the days go by. Eventually, he might even realise that he has lead a meaningless life. Till then, he might have lived a wealthy life, but one with much sorrow, anger and disappointment.

2. In The Green Clothes, green is the color of envy, greed and money! This poem is thematically similar to Paper. Even though the poem takes place at a roulette wheel the gamblers from the short story and the poem have similar experiences. Explain how tips, dry lips, and all that was spent in vain could apply to the short story Paper.

‘All that was spent in vain’ can be applied very closely to the short story ‘Paper’. Throughout the story, the object in the centre of attention was the dream house. Along the way, Tay Soon and Yee Lian have been participating in the stock market very furiously and frequently. They got, in fact, addicted to the stock market – which is to some extent, also gambling. In the end, all the money they earned from the stock market backfired against them – and all the time, effort and money they put in were spent to vain.

Not only did they not get their dream house, Tay Soon got so depressed that he died. Hence, in addition to all the wasted time, effort and money, there was the life of a man lost, and the grief the people around him got.

3. Ah Boh in Lottery has about one dollar, there’s a “blind man,” the number 13 and ultimately zero dollars to bet. These last examples are taken from One-Dollar Gambler. Show how they also relate to Ah Boh.

Throughout the story, Ah Boh was blind, really blind, until the end of the story, towards her addiction, her neglecting her mother, and her wasting her life on gambling. Through her interests in pursuing a lucky number for lotteries, numbers are always involved and she’s always on the lookout for them, in any form they came in.

Finally, her small pool of money that she has stayed together with in gambling was reduced to a complete zero, together with her joy, her goal in life and her dead mother.