Blog #3 Problematize--A Work of Artifice

The poem “A Work of Artifice” is a challenging. We read in this poem about a bonsai tree that should have grown up to eighty feet tall if no one would have planted it in a pot, pruning it to be only nine inches tall. At first, you don’t really realize the significance or symbolism of this poem but by the end of it, it’s pretty evident that this poem is all about oppression towards women.

“The bonsai tree in the attractive pot could have grown eighty feet tall on the side of the mountain till split by lightening.” In this single sentence, we see that in nature bonsai trees can grow to be very tall until an act of nature destroys it- in this case, lightening.  This is how everything should be. Women should be able to have the freedom to grow, spread their wings, be independent, and have the same rights as men. The only time that women should be “pruned” is if it’s by God.

“But a gardener carefully pruned it. It is nine inches high. Every day as he whittles back the branches the gardener croons, it is your nature to be small and cozy, domestic and weak; how lucky, little tree, to have a pot to grow in.”  Here we see that a person has entered the bonsai’s life but little to the bonsai’s knowledge- that person, the gardener, is lying to it. In this case, men are the gardeners, entering in women’s lives and never allowing them to reach their full potential. The men become controlling and deceptive. The men tell the women that they should be small, cozy, domestic, weak, and how lucky they are to be able to live in a nice little house to grow in.

“With living creatures one must begin very early to dwarf their growth; the bound feet, the crippled brain, the hair in curlers, the hands you love to touch.” The gardener is telling the bonsai tree that it is necessary to start pruning at a young age. Men think the same thing. Men think that they must start oppressing women when the women are at young age, before they learn right from wrong and before they stand up to the men that are oppressing them.

This poem certainly goes against everything that God has intended for men and women. God didn’t create men to be above women or vice versa. God created men and women to be equal, to be side by side. Ephesians 5:21-33 talks about how the man should love his wife as he loves himself and, the wife must respect her husband. This is a partnership, not a dominion. God doesn’t want husbands to degrade their wives. God created men and women equal.

Southeastern does an excellent job at providing the same opportunities for men and women. Unlike this poem, SEU does not look down upon women and allows women to grow to their full potential. They do not prune women nor do they only allow women to grow to only nine inches high.

This poem certainly goes against everything Christians believe, what Southeastern allows, and what I personally believe in.  Men and women were created equally; therefore, men and women should be treated equally.