Ethics : Linda Paston
Literal comprehension the speaker ethics teacher would ask them a question every fail. What would they save if there were a fire I a museum: a Rembrandt painting or an old women who hadn’t may years to live ? the speaker an her classmates would choose one or the other option , but they would always do that half-heartedly.one year the speaker said that they should ask the old woman herself to decide about it. However, the teacher said it would be eschewing one’s ethical responsibility . AFTER many years, the speaker went to the museum and stood besides the Rembrandt painting . she was an old woman then. She saw that the painting was live, natural and connected to the earth in several ways. Then she understood that a painting was at least at the same level as the woman. it also made her realise that the ethical questions are very complicated, and such question cannot be answer by children because the children lack capacity to understand such question.
Interpretation: this poem seems to compare life with art and it seems to point out how art can be as important as life itself. The Rembrandt painting stand for art while the old woman stands for life . the teacher asks the class to decide which one of the two life or art, is more important than the other. The speaker and her classmate try to answer the question. However, as the speaker says, they cannot do so satisfactory. Later the speaker understands that both life and art almost equally important. She understands that ethical question are ambiguous in nature and they cannot be answered definitely. Particularly, such questions cannot be understood and answered by immature people.
Critical thinking:
The poem is important because it gives the reader an insight into the ambiguous confusing nature of its life questions. life is fully of ambiguous particularly when life moral questions are concerned. This poem gives just one example of such moral ambiguous. this question “what is more important, life or art” is a difficult question to answer. One can take an easy stance and say that life is more important other thing . however , one can also say that if life is so important why people willingly sacrifices life for the snake of artistic objects. The creation of a work art is not a simple incident in human life. Sometimes a persons has to sacrifice much more for bringing about such a creation. The poem just makes the readers understand realize such a complicated aspect of human existence.
Assimilation: this poem gave me much insight abut life and its nature. I had never thought before that a work of art can be compared to life itself. I would think that life is much more valuable than any other thing in the world. However, this poem made me aware that I should not jump into conclusion without thinking seriously. Both life and art can be equally important. I also remember now that artist sacrifices much more creating single work of art. Sometimes the artist family life itself is ruined because of their devotion on art. They happily scarifies the material comfort. They do not sleep sometimes and they get sick just because they are trying to create something artistically important. If life was more important, why should they risk their own life for the creation of such artistic work? this poem really made me think deeply about the nature of life and art.