Ethics

-          Linda Pastan

I. Literal Comprehension

            Context: This poem is written by contemporary American poet Linda Pastan (1943- ).

            Long ago, in ethics class at college, the speaker and her classmates were asked by her teacher every year what they would try to save, a Rembrandt painting or an elderly woman, from a museum fire. They would often feel uncomfortable, and answered the question light-heartedly and alternatively every year. The speaker sometimes found her grandmother’s face in the imaginary elderly woman. Once she answered that the choice should be left with the woman herself. Her teacher scolded her saying that she wanted to shift her responsibility to others. Now, the speaker herself is an elderly woman, standing in front of a real Rembrandt painting in a museum. She has realized after so many years that woman, painting, and seasons are almost same in their values, and saving them is beyond the capacity of the children.

II. Interpretation

            This poem might be trying to tell us that one is serious about an issue only when one faces the real problem. The speaker wasn’t serious about her teacher’s question when she was in her class. She could realize the gravity of the issue only when she found herself in the same real situation. It also means that youths today are not as responsible as they should have been. Therefore, they have not realized the gravity of the issues related to women, art, and nature. The poet might also be trying to tell us that life and art cannot be separated from each other because they exist together and both depend on the surrounding environment.  

III. Critical Thinking

            Some young people might be irresponsible as the poet has pondered, but I don’t think all the youths have no concern about nature. Is the whole generation of young people so much unable to think properly about life, art, and nature?

IV. Assimilation

            After reading the poem, I have understood the value of art in life. Life is beautiful because of the existence of art. But both life and art depend upon the surrounding environment.