Linda Pastans Poem Ethics :: Pastan Ethics

  Linda Pastans poem Ethics          In Linda Pastans poem Ethics, the verbalizer recounts a moral dilemma that her teacher would ask every f each, which has been unyielding 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 aging woman who hadnt some / years left anyhow? and the verbaliser tells us through the discipline that ethics and moral values can be only learn from the reflection which comes through experience and maturity.  In this poem,  imagery, diction, and figures of speech contribute to the culture of the news report.                         The loudspeaker system in the poem uses images to help to support the theme.  For example the controversy that sometimes the woman borrowed my grandmothers face displays the inability of the children to rel ate the dilemma to themselves, something that the speaker has learned later on with time and experience.  In this poem, the speaker is an doddering 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 k presently now that woman / and painting and season are almost one / and all beyond saving by children. clearly states that the poem is not compose for the amusement of children but somebody that has reached the speakers age, thus supporting the idea of the theme that children cannot help or understand her or anybody of her age.  In addition, when the speakers describes the kids in the classroom as restless on hard chairs and caring little for portray or old age we can picture them in our minds sitting, put in to leave the class as soon as possible, unwilling and unable to understand the ethics dilemma or what the speaker is get holding.             Th e choice of dustup of the author also contributes to the development of the theme.  For example, the use of words like  drafty, half-heartedly, and half-imagined introduce 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.