problematized.

“…the bound feet, the crippled brain, the hair in curlers, the hands you love to touch.”

The last line of this poem puzzles me.  The first time I read “A Work of Artifice” I thought I understood what it was trying to say, or what it was about.  I understood that it was about the oppression of women, especially when I read the line, “the bound feet” reminding me of foot binding in China.  But the last line challenges me.  Who is “you” and why do they love to touch the woman/tree’s hands? 

After discussing the poem more in depth during class, my eyes were opened slightly and I understood a few more details within the poem.  I’d known what a bonsai tree looked like because they used to sell them out of a small booth in the mall back at home.  Before class, I didn’t know bonsai trees could grow to get so big!  I’d automatically thought they just grew tiny like I’d seen in the mall.  I didn’t know someone had to “prune” them to make smaller.  This helped me better understand the line where it said “in the attractive pot” a bit more.  To me it seemed like the author portrayed the woman being stunted and controlled in her “pot” as being attractive –at least according to men. 

I had to look up what the word “croon” meant while reading this poem because I didn’t know what it meant.  Even after looking up its definition, I still didn’t have the imagery in my mind until we discussed that line in class.  After Dr. DeBorde hummed the lines following the word “croons” in class, I could picture a man humming and singing to the small bonsai tree, actually enjoying what he was doing.  This made me think about how men might enjoy having control over their women [wives].  I can picture in my head a man saying things like, “you should be THANKFUL or LUCKY to work for me” to their woman –sort of in a weird, deceptive like tone.  I can hear him say it in a loving voice, but in all actuality being demeaning. 

To my understanding, I would say the “you” in the last line of this poem is a man –either the woman’s husband (maybe even owner) or the male gender as a whole.  Maybe the author is saying that the man (or men) loves to be in control of the woman and feels as if that’s the way it SHOULD be.  It’s just so odd to me to have that tagged on at the end of this poem.  It doesn’t feel like it should be there.  I question why the author chose to end the poem with such a line.                                               

As a whole, I feel like the author is trying to show through this poem that men like it when a woman is under their control, and follows everything they tell them to do –sort of like a slave.  The bonsai tree is a perfect representation of how the woman is pruned by the man.  I think our culture has come a long way from the time around when this poem was written.  It seems especially evident to me here at SEU, seeing as the Assemblies of God is very pro-women in leadership.  I don’t think they’d like this poem very much!  It’s interesting to think that only approximately  50+ years ago women were still looked down upon and somewhat controlled by men.  I was shocked to hear that foot binding was only outlawed in the 80’s!  I hope our culture can continue to respect women and admire how far we’ve come in such a short period of time.