The theme of Freedom in "The Panther," "A Work of Artifice," and "Caged Bird" through the Metaphors of Nature

Literature has been used as a tool for people to address the issues bothering them. Since the beginning of human life, there have always been problems in social life that should be solved, like oppression against women, different races, and nature. While culture is thriving, people become more disrespectful toward nature, for example. The more victories humans gain against nature, the more they consider themselves superior to animals and plants. To display their power, people capture wild animals and put them in cages or destroy trees and flowers. Moreover, they establish dominance not only over nature and other kinds of animals but also over minorities, as they call them, among their kind. Women and people of different races are two of the groups that are oppressed by the dominant power. Women, because they are considered weak, are kept away from many parts of social life that accept men but not women, and people of color, especially black people, are considered inferior because they are stated to be intellectually less capable than white people. So, to take advantage of these people, major forces captivate them in different ways. Their inferiority comes from the oppression of people who have power, just like nature and wildlife. The interference and oppression of majorities on nature, women, and people of color are indicated in literary works such as Rainer Maria Rilke's "The Panther," Marge Piercy's "A Work of Artifice," and Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird," through references to the oppressed group's feeling of captivity and its consequences considered to be a beauty by oppressors.

In the poem "The Panther," the feelings of a person whose freedom is taken away are described using the panther as a metaphor. The panther, even though he is a strong animal, is not able to do anything because he is in a cage that prevents him from seeing beyond the bars. "It seems to him there are a thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world" (Rilke). For an eye that looks out of the cage, his moves would seem majestic, powerful, and "like a ritual dance," but he is restricted by the bars. In the last stanza, he, for a moment, thinks about freedom; however, he realizes that he cannot get out of the cage and thus cannot be free. Some people, perhaps a prisoner or someone who is not in a visible cage but lives in a restricted environment, are similar to the panther. They are powerful, yet they are not free, thus they cannot use their potential. For an outsider, a mentally or physically imprisoned person may not be a problem; they may even be perceived as content with their situation due to their passiveness when in reality they are simply incapable of seeing beyond captivity due to how long they have been in a cage.

In "A Work of Artifice," Marge Piercy specifically indicates how women are limited and made to think that their limited lives are a part of their nature. The poem is an extended metaphor for the relationship between men and women. A bonsai tree that is taken from its natural state, in which it grows "eighty feet tall," and put in a pot, turning into a submissive house plant that is "nine inches high," symbolizes women who are oppressed and are made to believe that they are "domestic and weak," while the gardener who puts the tree in a pot symbolizes the men oppressing women. The gardener talking to the bonsai tree states that it is lucky to have a pot to grow in that pot is the reason why the tree cannot reach its potential; however, this state of the tree looks beautiful to the gardener. He appreciates how beautiful it looks. Piercy, as a feminist, suggests how men take women away from their nature and potentially powerful state and restrict them to make them stay at their houses and submit. She also indicates that they make everyone accept this situation, including women themselves, as normal and create beauty standards for women.

Another poem that presents oppression is "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou with a metaphor for black people. In the poem, Maya Angelou depicts how black Americans are caged birds in society while white Americans are free birds. A free bird "dares to claim the sky" and can enjoy everything pleasing; however, a caged bird is not able to spread his wings behind the bars. The caged bird sings for freedom even though he does not know what is beyond the bars, and his screams for freedom are thought to be of pleasure. In 1969, the year this poem was published, black Americans were discriminated against and barely starting to gain their freedom. Until the time they demanded their freedom, many white Americans thought that black Americans were happy with the way they lived, just as the caged bird is. In society, black Americans were oppressed; their "wings [were] clipped" and "feet are tied." They always desired the liberty the white people had. Thus, they sang, even though some did not understand the reason for their singing. So, this poem uses "free bird" and "caged bird" as metaphors for white and black people in America to imply black people’s aspiration for freedom.

To sum up, these three poems use nature, which was dominated and damaged by humans, as metaphors for people who are oppressed by majorities in society. In "The Panther" by Rainer Maria Rilke, the panther is a metaphor for the people who are mentally or physically restricted by society in general, while in "A Work of Artifice" by Marge Piercy, the bonsai tree is used for the women who are oppressed by men to be beautiful and domestic, and in "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou, the black people of America, who have been oppressed by the white people for centuries and claim their right to freedom, are depicted through the metaphors of a caged bird and free bird.