A Work of Artifice - Questions & Answers
About the Poet
I. True / False
1. Marge Piercy was born in Detroit, Michigan.
True
2. Marge Piercy won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her sweeping historical novel, Gone to Soldiers.
False
II. Fill in the Blanks
1. Marge Piercy was the first member of her family to attend college, winning a scholarship to the University of Michigan.
2. Piercy's novel Gone to Soldiers is a sweeping historical novel set during World War II.
III. Short Answer Questions
1. How did Marge Piercy develop a love for reading books during her childhood?
Marge Piercy developed a love for books when she suffered from German measles and rheumatic fever in her mid-childhood. Because she could do little else but read, it taught her that "there's a different world there."
2. What are the core ideals and roots that influence Marge Piercy's literary work?
Her literary work is deeply rooted in her Jewish heritage, her Communist social and political activism, and her feminist ideals.
IV. Longer Answer Questions
1. Explain the significance of the bonsai tree metaphor as discussed in the introduction to the poet.
In the poem, the poet uses an extended metaphor of a bonsai tree to represent a woman. A bonsai tree's roots and branches are pruned and tightly tied so that it does not grow to its real, natural size. This symbolizes a loss of growth, a lack of freedom, and a life without the space to grow. By using this metaphor, the poet questions whether women are meant to be treated merely as materials of interior decoration, confined to households, and forced to remain tightly tied to limited responsibilities.
1. A Work of Artifice (Poem)
I. True / False
1. In the wild, the bonsai tree could have grown to be eighty feet tall on the side of a mountain.
True
2. The gardener tells the tree that it is its nature to be wild, huge, and strong.
False
II. Fill in the Blanks
1. Due to the gardener's careful pruning, the bonsai tree is kept at a height of just nine inches.
2. The poet notes that to dwarf the growth of living creatures, one must begin the process very early.
III. Short Answer Questions
1. What does the gardener do to the tree every day?
Every day, the gardener carefully prunes the tree and whittles back its branches to keep it small.
2. What false praise or comfort does the gardener offer the tree while cutting it back?
The gardener croons to the tree, telling it that it is "lucky" to have an attractive pot to grow in and that its true nature is to be small, cozy, domestic, and weak.
IV. Longer Answer Questions
1. How does the poet show that human beings, particularly women, are subjected to the same restricting process as the bonsai tree? Give examples from the text.
The poet draws a powerful parallel between the stunted growth of the bonsai tree and the societal conditioning of women. She states that just as the tree is pruned, the dwarfing of living creatures must begin very early. To illustrate how society forcibly limits women to fit domestic roles, the poet lists physical and psychological restrictions: "the bound feet," "the crippled brain," "the hair in curlers," and cultivating "the hands you love to touch." These examples highlight how women are shaped into decorative, submissive, and restricted figures rather than being allowed to reach their full, natural potential.