The poem’s title points to its central concern – ethics. What is meant by ethics is a general system of moral principles, the study of which is the branch of philosophy concerned with right and wrong of certain actions and behaviour. A system of ethical or moral behaviour is essential to a civilised society, and we learn early through instruction many of its moral precepts. However, in the course of life people find themselves in situations in which they must decide for themselves what is the right way to act or the right choice to make. It is an individual’s responsibility to make the right choice and to be accountable for that choice. A part of growing up is learning how to make the right choices.

In the poem ‘Ethics’, Linda Pastan speaks about her experience and understanding of the true meaning of Ethics. She recollects her school days when her Ethics teacher would ask the same question to her students every fall (autumn). The teacher would ask her students whom would they save if there were a fire in the museum – a Rembrandt painting or an old woman who hadn’t many years to live?

The students would be restless on hard chairs and give answers halfheartedly, without understanding the significance of the question. As they cared very little for art or life, they would choose life one year and art the next year. Another year Linda tried to suggest letting the woman decide for herself, but the teacher warned her not to escape from her responsibility of making a choice.

Years later, in an autumn, Linda visited a museum and stood before a real Rembrandt painting. As she studied the painting, she noticed that the colours were darker than autumn, darker than even winter. The painter’s colours on the canvas were those deep colours seen at the end of a season. However, she saw that through these dark colours earth’s most radiant elements burned. By using such imagery she expresses what she saw in the Rembrandt, which a child would not be able to see.

Pastan realised that a beautiful painting and an old woman are “all beyond saving by children”. Pastan understood that a child would choose to save an old woman rather than a painting because the child felt that it was, morally, the right thing to do. The unmatched beauty of the painting was truly worth saving. At the same time she was now standing in the place of the old woman. She understood the value of the painting which she could not as a young girl. She remembered how little meaning either pictures or old age had for her then.

She now realized the teacher’s true intention in posing the question – that woman, painting and seasons are all equally important and they are beyond saving by children. Pastan shows that at a young age children don’t fully understand what ethics means, they would just do what felt morally right. She understood that ethics comes with the experience that one has in one’s life.

In the concluding part of the poem which states, “I know now that woman and painting and season are almost one and all beyond the saving of children”, it is evident that this poem is not meant for the amusement of children, but rather for people who have attained the age of the speaker. In these lines, the poet finally realizes the real meaning of the question posed to them by their teacher several years ago because of the numerous years of experience she has gained. The narrator implies that the woman and the painting both represent old age and wisdom; things that the children are unable to comprehend and that is why they cannot assist or save them.