Ethics
...t because they care. One year, this girl decided that the responsibility is not hers and she replied, “why not let the old woman decide for herself?” Although she was trying to be clever, she just gave up on the thought that either was worth saving. The child felt it was not her responsibility to save an old woman she didn’t know. Any child feels they have no obligations or responsibilities simply because they are young. They feel they have to reason to worry about something that they are not responsible for. The child, now an old woman, sees a Rembrandt painting and notices the darkness within the canvas. The darkness within the painting can symbolize a thought any old woman may contemplate – death. She sees the darkness within the painting as an old woman, which no child could ever see because death is not something a child reflects on. The last lines, however, are what explain the central idea of the poem and what the woman finally realizes, “I know now that woman and painting and season are almost one and all beyond saving by children.” This shows what the author is trying to say. In a child’s mind an old woman or a painting or ...