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Interpretations and explications of "Ethics" by Linda Pastan
How many different ways are there to interpret a poem? Different approaches can be used to analyze a piece of literature. In the poem, "Ethics" by Linda Pastan many of these approaches need to be taken to interpret this poem.
This poem fits the characteristics of a narrative poem. A reason it is considered a narrative poem is a climax and conclusion exist in the poem. Another reason it is a narrative poem is, the reader knows who the main character is. The characters name is Linda. "Linda, the teacher would report" (15). The final reason it is a narrative poem is readers read a story of an event in Linda's life.
The poem has relatively simple language used, but there are a few words that are difficult to understand. The first words that needed to be looked up were Rembrandt painting. The denotation of the words was a Dutch painter in the seventeenth century (American Heritage dictionary). The connotation of these words are expensive painting, luxurious brushwork, and rich color. The next word that needed to be looked up was opt. The denotation of this word is choosing or to be chosen from (American Heritage dictionary). The connotations of the word can be rather do, to choose one out of many options, or to replace. Another word that needed to be defined was eschews. The denotation of the word is avoided (American Heritage dictionary). The connotation of
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this word is ignoring, stop paying attention, and go around. Another word that needed to be defined was burden. The denotation is something oppressive or worrisome (American Heritage dictionary). The connotation of the word can be nuisance, inconvenience, and carried. The next word that needed to be defined is radiant. The denotation is bright and shinny (American Heritage dictionary). Connotations of the word are good-looking, show of love or affection, and beaming. The final word that needed to be defined is canvas. Denotation is a piece of cloth backed or framed as a surface for a painting (American Heritage dictionary). Connotations of the word are painting material and background.
The speaker of the poem is a student inside an ethics class. The student is the author Linda. We know the author is the speaker because she refers to her name Linda, inside the poem. "Linda, the teacher would report, eschews/ the burden of responsibility" (15-16).We know the speaker is asked a question about what her ethics are like. The question refers to an old painting and an old woman, and which you would rather save in a fire. The speaker, caring little for the question, answers without giving the question a lot of thought. Later in her life, the speaker has the event that happened in the question happen in real life. The speaker then figures out what the teacher implied by the question. Things we can learn from her personality are, to take the time to figure out the meaning of a question, they often mean more than what is implied.
The tone of the poem is boring, imaginative, and appreciative. The reader first learns the speaker is bored when the speaker states, "Restless on hard chairs/ caring little
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for pictures or old age/ we'd opt one year for life, the next for art/ and always half-heartedly" (6-). Next we learn the speaker is imaginative when she states, "One year,
feeling clever, I replied/ why not let the women decide herself" (1-14). Later on the speaker figures out the lesson the ethics teacher was teaching and the speaker is more appreciative of what the teacher had been trying to teach to her all along. The speaker states, "I know now that the woman and painting and season are almost one/ and all beyond saving by children" (4-5). No fundamental differences exist between what you get and what you expect. Irony plays an important role. The irony in the poem is the question that was asked to her when she was little, that later in her life the question turned into a real life situation.
An apostrophe in the poem is the speaker refers to the old woman borrowing her grandmother's face. "The woman borrowed my grandmother's face" (10). Another figure of speech in the poem is personification. The personification in the poem is, "Woman/ and painting and season are almost on and all beyond saving by children" (-5).
Sound doesn't play a very important part in the poem. No rhyming scheme or alliterations that takes place in the poem. Some assonance involved in the poem. One instance of assonance the speaker uses is "hard chairs caring" (6-7). The words receive extra emphasis because the "ar" sound in the three words put together sound the same. Another example of assonance is when the speaker says, "always half-heartedly" (). The words receive extra emphasis because the "al" sound in the two words. The last assonance in the poem is "drafty, half imagined" (1). The words receive extra emphasis
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because of the repeating "a" sound. Another element of sound that is involved in the poem is euphony. The euphony is, "The browns of the earth/ through earth's most radiant elements burn/ through the canvas" (1-).
Imagery is very powerful throughout the poem. Many words in the poem refer to a sense. The first image sentence is, "Sometimes/ the woman borrowed my grandmother's face" (-10). This shows the inability of the children to actually picture the events that take place. Other words referring to our images are in the line, "Restless on hard chairs/ caring little for pictures or old age" (6-7). The image refers to our sense of sight. A person may visually see himself or herself sitting in a classroom listening to something they don't particularly care for. The last image the reader receives is the description of the painting. The speaker states, "The colors/ within the frame are darker than autumn, / darker even than winter - the browns of the earth, / though earth's most radiant elements burn/ through the canvas" (1-). The image allows readers to envision the painting.
A meter exists in the poem. The meter is in iambic pentameter. One example of this meter is, "In ethics class so many years ago" (1). Another example of the meter is, "One year, feeling clever, I replied" (1). All lines in the poem follow this meter.
This poem is in closed form. There is no rhyming scheme, but there is a meter that exist. The author doesn't use stanzas is the poem. This would make the poem a black verse. The poem doesn't fall into a type of closed form.
My interpretation of the poem is a person will not understand their ethics until a situation occurs that would test what their ethics are. At the beginning of the poem the
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audience listens as the speaker takes us back into a time in her life. She is having a flashback of time she had in ethics class. The speaker says, "In ethics class so many years ago" (1). The speaker is asked a question pertaining to her ethics or beliefs. The question
is, "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" (-6)?
Now the speaker is in their early teenage years when she is sitting in this class. Characteristics of a typical teenager are they usually start caring less during school and start to think that they everything is dull and boring, except for what they are interested in. A normal teenager might say, "Restless on hard chairs/ caring little for pictures of old age/ we‘d opt for life, the next for art/ and always half-heartedly" (6-). The speaker uses the word "half- heartedly" to stress she isn't trying to understand what the teacher is trying to tell her. A reader may get an image of when they were younger sitting through a class they might not have enjoyed. When thinking about the question, the speaker is daydreaming about her grandmother wondering through this museum, as she takes the place of the old lady. The speaker says, "Sometimes/ the woman borrowed my grandmother's face/ leaving her usual kitchen to wander" (-11). The teacher soon becomes frustrated with the class and starts to ignore some of the comments the students say. "Linda, the teacher would report, eschews/ the burden of responsibility" (15-16). The author uses the word "eschews" and "burden" in the poem to give a sense of what the teacher's intelligence is like.
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The reader is then brought to the present time. The speaker soon encounters a situation that occurs to her that happened in the question when she was a kid. Only she is the old woman. "This fall in a real museum I stand/ before a real Rembrandt painting, old woman, / or nearly so, myself" (17-1). She is older but doesn't consider herself as old, only "nearly so." The speaker knows that the painting is old and so has she, which tell a story of coming of age in two different ways. The speaker says, "I know now that
woman/ and painting and season are almost one/ and all beyond saving by children" (-5). Children cannot save the experience and wisdom that an old lady has. Therefore, if a child saves the old lady, the painting will burn and kids will never see the beauty and get the wisdom in the painting. If the child saves the painting, they will never see the beauty and get the wisdom in old lady.
Works Cited
Pastan, Linda. "Ethics." Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 8th ed. New York Longman, 00. 17.
American Heritage Dictonary. 4th ed. New York Dell, 001. 118 - 707
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