A Work of Artifice

Does a bonsai tree know when it's "growing in an attractive pot" instead of "on the side of a mountain"? Something that appears to be so beautiful and luring, as the gardener sweetly tells the tree it's better off restricted. And that is how it starts. Slowly, in disguise. The gardener makes this life look so promising, using manipulation to gain your emotions under his control. Everyday he whittles back your freedoms. Little by little, taking away your right to have an opinion, to think for yourself, and using twisted lines, like "If you loved me, you'd do it". 

This weeks reading hit a soft spot in my heart. Our discussion in class on how the bonsai tree represents a woman and the oppression that she is going through was very revealing. Each line has a specific purpose and it builds up to this message, almost in code, of what is actually happening. And how true that can be. Women who are in abusive relationships use a code to say something without saying it. 

People in our society who live in oblivion to abusive relationships are just that: oblivious. They "don't understand how the girl didn't see it coming" or if "that was me, I would have gotten out sooner". Do they ever stop to think that maybe that girl or that woman did not choose to be in an attractive pot and cut down to nine inches tall, when she could be her full height on the side of a mountain with room to grow? 

What people don't know is- I was that girl. I was that bonsai tree being sweetly crooned too, slowly, and assuredly having my freedom taken away. You don't ever plan to be in that situation. But all the while, these gardeners see what their doing. They want to make you small and weak, masking the abuse in what they call love. 

Throughout the entire poem and through our discussion in class I found myself relating. I wonder how many people in our class actually know what it feels like. I wonder if they all walked away the same. Or maybe, just maybe, they walked away wondering how to improve their own relationships, maybe even thankful for the ones they have. Its stories and poems like this that should help us evaluate the good we have in our lives. For me, it made me realize just how far I've come. I've been uprooted from my pot and I'm on my way to my side of the mountain.