Yoshiko Uchinda The Wise Old Woman

“And I must ask the forgiveness of your mother and of all my people. Never again will I demand that the old people of our village be sent to the mountains to die. Rather, they will be treated with the respect and honor they deserve and share with us the wisdom of their years.” The folktale “ The Wise Old Woman” was Written By Yoshiko Uchinda Is a story that takes place in medieval Japan. The story starts when a young ruler makes a decree that all people over the age of 71 must be sent to the mountains to die. A farmer tries to keep his mother from dying. His actions helped save the village from being captured. The author made the character actions lead up to the theme. The story is about how a village gets rid of all of the elderly. But one citizen does not follow the law and puts his elderly mother in the basement of his home. His mother helps the village from capture.

In paragraph 27 the young farmer goes to his elderly mother and asks her how to make a rope of ash.She then responds
with “Why, that is not such an impossible task.” she also says “ All one has to do is soak ordinary rope in salt water and dry it well. When it is burned, it will hold its shape and there is your rope of ash!” This is helps the reader find the theme of the story. It helps the reader because it shows that even the elderly can be useful. The farmer’s mom is happy to help here village even though the Young ruler got rid of all her friends from her generation. When the first request from lord Higa the farmer went straight to his mother and told her the impossible task and she said this,” Why, that is not such an impossible task. All one has to do is soak ordinary rope in salt water and dry it well. When it is burned, it will hold its shape and there is your rope of ash!

Another way the author shows theme in the story is in paragraph 46.
In paragraph 46 the young lord says this to the framer’s mom “ I have been very wrong,”. The young lord says this because if the farmer would have took his mother up to the mountains to die the village would have been captured. The young lord also says this “And I must ask the forgiveness of your mother and of all my people. Never again will I demand that the old people of our village be sent to the mountains to die. Rather, they will be treated with the respect and honor they deserve and share with us the wisdom of their years.” The young lord is asking for forgiveness to the elderly and says that everyone must treat them with respect. This shows the theme of the story,which is respect your elders.

All of these actions during the story help the reader find the theme of the story. This story shows that even though the elders may not be able to farm they can still help out their village with their
knowledge.