“The Aged Mother”

“Oh, Honorable mother, your kindness breaks my heart! I will not leave you. Together we will follow the path of twigs, and together we will die!” this is a powerful statement made by the son in the story, “The Aged Mother” to show his loyalty to her. The son decides to sacrifice himself to save his mother’s life this shows loyalty, one of the most important themes in the story. In the story, the emperor wants to kill all the old people because he is afraid to get old and die. Because the emperor said that, the son in the story took his mom to the mountain to let her die, but his mother used the sticks to mark the road they walked. When the son realized he was wrong, he decided to go back and die with his mom. According to Matsuo Basho, the Author of the story the “Aged Mother”, loyalty usually inspires people to Ignore their own needs for someone else.

In the story, the son chose loyalty to save his mom. These two pieces of evidence that show the importance of loyalty. The first evidence is that the son thinks that loyalty is more important than death. “Oh, Honorable mother, your kindness breaks my heart! I will not leave you. Together we will follow the path of twigs, and together we will die!” He is loyal because he cares about his mother and he cares about himself too.

The emperor made a crazy request to have a rope of ashes from each person. But nobody knew how to do it except for the old mother that the son had hidden away. She told the son how to make the rope and the son showed the emperor. After he did those things, he tells the emperor he didn’t think of this is his mother thought of the idea. “Ah, that I should have forgotten the well-known saying, “with the crown of snow, there cometh wisdom!” That very hour the cruel law was abolished, and custom drifted into as far a past This shows the son wanted to save his mom and he told the emperor that he hid his mom and she solved this problem and after that, the emperor is supersized, and he changed the rules. Because the son was loyal to his mother, he opened the emperor’s mind/eyes to the value of old people.

To conclude this is my story “the Aged Mother” According to Matsuo Basho, the Author of the story the “Aged Mother”, loyalty usually inspires people to Ignore their own needs for someone else.