Emergency IT Lesson 4: Theme: Gambling

Materials: Three short stories: Catherine Lim’s Little Ironies, Paper and Lottery and D.H. Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner.


1. In relation to Paper, you should explain exactly what the title refers to and why it is so significant to gambling, gains on the stock market and ultimately the conclusion of the story.

Paper seemed to be the reason that started this whole problem. Paper made me think of money as money is made if paper. They decided to make quick money in the stock market. They were making lots of money and their shares' worth were going to hit a million soon. However, the stock market plunged and they found themselves losing a lot of money. In the end they had no money to even buy their dream house. A house made of paper was built instead. Thus, here is where paper comes in again.


2. For Lottery, do an analysis of 100 words in which you look at Ah Boh’s superstitions regarding gambling.

Ah Boh is overly superstitious. Everyday she tries to recall her dream hoping to be able to translate them into numbers.She even used the weight of a cat to allow her to choose her numbers. She also asked a baby to choose numbers for her. New - born babies, children celebrating their birthdays and newly - weds instantly interested her as they were supposed to bring luck. She would even go to accident scenes to copy down the registration plates of vehicles that were involved in the accident. She prayed to gods and her late husband hoping they would bless her and let her strike it rich. Any little thing was thought to be a sign given to her from her late husband.


3. For The Rocking Horse Winner, write a paragraph of 100 words in which you point out who was responsible for Paul’s death.

I think no one but Paul was responsible for his death. He was overly-obsessed with the whispers in his house and wanted to get rid of them. However, as he earned more money the whispers became worse and he began to go mad. He would only concentrate on one task and that was to get rid of all the whispering in his house. He was actually as good as being possesed when he would ask his wooden horse for the correct horse to place his bet on. This made him go crazy.