The theme of Linda Pastan's poem "Ethics" - Literature Essay Help

My essay is below, if anyone could help me with editing and if it's good and answers the question, any help would be great. O and I have a works cited but I didn't include that in this post. Thank you!!


What is the theme of Linda Pastan's poem "Ethics"?

Understanding Ethics

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Greetings!

I think you've done a good job with the essay and with answering the question! I have just a few editing tips for you:

A poem's theme is its foundation; it is what everything else is built on. Merriam Webster Online Dictionary - It's best to avoid using contractions in formal writing. You have some others, too, (e.g., "would've") that you should expand into two words.

the meaning of ethics occurs over time

Pastan's question shows that at a young age she truly did not understand what ethics meant.

Pastan realizes that a child would choose to save an old woman rather than a painting because the child feels that it is, morally, the right thing to do. - When your subject, "child," is singular, you cannot then refer to that subject as "they," which is plural.

Good work!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com

Thank you so much for your help!

You're welcome!

Sarah, EssayForum.com

Okay, for my class he will read our drafts and then comment on them if we hand them in before a certain date. He read mine and said that it was just a summary I need to include the techniques Linda Pastan uses in the poem. I'm kind of stuck because I don't know where to go from here, I don't want to have to completly rewrite my essay.

Greetings!

What "techniques" have you discussed in class? You might want to make a list of them and then see if you can find specific examples of those techniques in the poem. For instance, does she use metaphor? If so, how? You probably won't have to completely rewrite it, but if he feels there is too much summary, you will at least have to add to it.

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com

Thank you for your help, I made some corrections and I would really appreciate it if you could edit it and tell me if seems like it'll work for what my techer is asking (including Pastans techniques). Thank you for any help!!!


What is the theme of Linda Pastan's poem "Ethics"?

Understanding Ethics

A poem is made up of several different components. One very important component of a poem is its theme. A poem's theme is its foundation; it is what everything else is built on. Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines theme as, "a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation." In Linda Pastan's poem, "Ethics" the theme is that understanding the meaning of ethics occurs over time through growing older and maturing. Pastan shows us this theme through poetic techniques.
The poem is about Pastan's teacher asking her class an ethical question, "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?"(Pastan lines 4-6). Pastan showed that at a young age children don't fully understand what ethics means, they would just do what felt morally right. Pastan showed how she felt as a child by saying, "Sometimes/the woman borrowed my grandmother's face/leaving her usual kitchen to wander/some drafty, half-imagined museum."(lines 9-12). Pastan used a metaphor to relate what she had to choose between with the ethical question.
One year Pastan decided to answer her teachers question with, "why not let the woman decide for herself?"(line 14). Her teacher responded to her question that she, "eschews/the burdens of responsibility."(lines 15-16). Her teacher is pointing out the fact that she is running away from her responsibility of choosing between the painting and the old woman. Ethics is not about which choice you make, but about why you would make that choice.
Pastan learns and understands the meaning of ethics when she is older and more mature. She is standing in front of a real Rembrandt painting and noticing its beauty, "The colors/within this frame are darker than autumn/darker even than winter-the browns of earth, /though earth's most radiant elements burn/ through the canvas," (lines 19-24). Pastan used imagery to show the audience what she saw in the Rembrandt, what a child would not be able to see. Pastan realized that a beautiful painting, and an old women were, "all beyond saving by children" (line 25). Pastan understands that a child would choose to save an old woman rather than a painting because the child feels that it is, morally, the right thing to do.
Throughout Pasten's entire poem we learn how a person must grow and mature to understand what ethics is. In the beginning of the poem Pastan is a young girl who doesn't fully understand what ethics is. At the end, we learn that Pasten understands completely what ethics is. She used poetic techniques to aid the theme in relaying it to the audience. The audience can relate to Pastan comparing the painting with her grandmother because everyone knows of, or has had a grandmother. When Pastan describes in detail the painting the audience can relate to it because everyone has seen something in their life that they would describe in the same in-depth way that she did. By using poetic techniques to support her theme, Pastan showed the theme is understanding why you would make a choice.

Greetings!

It appears to me that it is still more summary than an analysis of technique. The only technique you really mentioned, toward the end, was imagery. Your essay is more about the underlying meaning of the lessons taught in the poem than it is about the actual writing of the poem itself AS a poem; that is, how the poem was written, rather than why. Your instructor seems to want more how and less why.

Here are a couple of editing pointers:

In Linda Pastan's poem, "Ethics," the theme is that - you need a comma after "Ethics"

One year Pastan decided to answer her teacher's question with, "why not let the woman decide for herself?"

Again, I would urge you to make a list of the types of techniques you have studied in class and see how many of them you can find in the poem, so that you can give examples.

Best of luck in your studies!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com