Ethics
...y / years left anyhow?” (3-6). The question clearly holds moral and ethical importance, but the children in the story seem to care “little for pictures or old age”. The children are described as being “restless” and answered the question “halfheartedly”. Words like “halfheartedly… restless…..drafty…..half-imagined” offer the reader an idea of just how little the children understand of the world. The disinterest of the pupils results from an inability to relate this question to their lives. The girl in the poem gave the imaginary woman her “grandmother’s face”, which reiterates a child’s incapability of connecting their own life with that of art and old age. The poem continuously refers to the woman being described in the Ethics question as “old”. This word choice also leads one to see very clearly how a child perceives the world. The elderly are just referred to by their age, and not given much thought. As a child, personal application of a concept like ethics is hard to achieve, and the choice of diction that Pastan used to portray the thoughts of the young people in the class offer a glimpse into the mind of a child. To truly portray that an understanding is reached by the character, imagery is used to describe in detail the painting that is so much more than it seems. As the poem continues however, the girl in the story comes to find herself “in a real museum…../ before a real Rembrandt, old woman,/ or nearly so myself. (17-19). It seems that the poet has finally reached a point where the question asked so many years ago might actually relate to her life. The poet that pushed aside the “old woman” with such apathetic disregard in the past , is now in that same position with just as many years of burden. Now, able to truly see the meaning behind that question, the poet goes on to describe in lush detail the beauty of that painting. The colors are described as “darker than autumn,/ darker even than winter-the browns of the earth/ though earth’s most radiant elements burn through the canvas.” (20-23). This description allows the reader to see that the painting is much more than just a canvas, but something that is living and represents the earth in a unique and beautiful way. The rich imagery expresses how “alive” the painting is, and makes it seem a symbol of the earth itself. In the beginning of the poem, the painting was given no description, and didn’t seem...