Leon Zhu

September 29, 2020

The Aged Mother

       The Aged Mother is a story that, on the outside, is a story about the compassion between the son and his mother. But there is more to that. On the inside, the story is about how old people have more wisdom. On paragraph 7, the mother thought up of a brilliant idea of making a knot of ashes with a straw rope. This means that with more experience, you tend to think better, be more cautious, and more mature in thinking about ideas and plans. The son thought and thought, but could not find a good way to combat the order given by the emperor because he did not have the wisdom and experience of his mother. Another example is when the emperor himself, at the end of the story, said that: “With a crown of snow, there cometh a wisdom.” (Basho 2). This saying means that with a crown of snow, or with a head of old white hair, will come a wisdom only obtainable with age and experience. Also, when the son was climbing the mountain, the mother had noticed that the son was hurrying up the mountain without care. Immediately, the mother thought about how the son would get back down. This means that the mother knows about the dangers of the mountain and can think ahead of time. Thus, the mother tore sticks from trees and bushes to make a ‘path’ that the son could follow to get back down. Again, an example of how older people who have more experience think better. With lots of evidence saying that the fact that older people tend to have more wisdom, it is irrefutable that my claim is incorrect.