Ethics 2
In Linda Pastan's poem "Ethics," the speaker recounts a moral dilemma that her teacher would ask every fall, which has been haunting her for a long time. The question was "if there were a fire in a museum / which would you save, a Rembrandt painting / or an old woman who hadn't many / years left anyhow?" and the speaker tells us through the theme that ethics and moral values can be only learned from the reflection which comes through experience and maturity. In this poem, imagery, diction, and figures of speech contribute to the development of the theme.The speaker in the poem uses images to help to support the theme. For example the statement that "sometimes the woman borrowed my grandmother's face" displays the inability of the children to relate the dilemma to themselves, something that the speaker has learned later on with time and experience. In this poem, the speaker is an old woman, and she places a high emphasis on the burden of years from which she speaks by saying "old woman, / or nearly so, myself." "I know now that woman / and painting and season are almost one / and all beyond saving by children." clearly states that the poem is not w
The choice of words of the author also contributes to the development of the theme. For example, the use of words like "drafty," "half-heartedly," and "half-imagined" give the reader the idea of how faintly the dilemma was perceived and understood by the children, thus adding to the idea that the children cannot understand the burden the speaker has upon herself. In addition, referring to a Rembrandt as just a "picture" and to the woman as "old age," we can see that these two symbols, which are very important to the speaker and to the poem, are considered trivial by the children, thus contributing to the concept that the children cannot feel what the speaker is feeling. To add to the idea of old age of the woman, and to define the point of view more clearly, the speaker uses "old woman" a number of times. The speaker uses the metaphors "The colors / within this frame are darker than autumn, / darker even than winter" and "the browns of earth, / though earth's most radiant elements burn / through the canvas." to give us the impression that the painting is not just a simple drawing, but it is something alive, something connected to the earth which is worth
Some common words found in the essay are:
Linda Pastan's, woman /, season / beyond, autumn /, painting season /, / beyond saving, beyond saving children, / painting season, / beyond, painting season, / painting, season /, speaker woman, poem speaker, theme example, speaker poem,
Approximate Word count = 783
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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