The life of a geisha may seem glamorous, but it is also adorned with deceit. The novel Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden follows the story of a young Japanese girl named Chiyo after she is sold to an okiya, a place where both accomplished and training geisha live together. For several years, Chiyo spends her days at the okiya as a maid. In result, she is treated with little to no respect by the people living alongside her. One day, Chiyo breaks into tears in public and a man called the Chairman gives her a few words of encouragement. These words give Chiyo the inspiration she needs to begin her training as a geisha, and she eventually succeeds with the help of her mentor, caretakers, and clients. However, Chiyo, whose name changes to Sayuri …show more content…
Sayuri, whose life has shown her more bad than good, is in despair for most of the novel due to the fact that she may never be reunited with the man she cares for. Because of this, she must hide behind thick makeup, flashy outfits, and fake smiles to conceal how she really feels about the events that transpire in the story, such as being promised to a man other than the one she has dreamed of since she was a child. Sayuri is good at hiding her feelings and masking her emotions, as no one has any idea of the anguish dwelling inside her. At one point in the story, she states, “I don’t think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it” (419). She never does speak of her pain to other people, partly because it is too great, and partly because she just cannot, for fear of losing what she has worked so hard for. For anyone to truly understand her, even her friends, they would need to look beyond the surface of the geisha ensemble and into the genuine person behind it. To get to know anybody, for that matter, one cannot simply “judge a book by its cover” and be done with them, as not everybody is the same on in the inside as how they appear on the
I am a small child… I am wearing…” Kogawa begins to speak of what she went through during relocation as a young child with her Obasan (aunt). The author no longer uses figurative language to describe the occurrence, but instead selection of detail. When informing the reader of a very young mother on the train she used details to emphasize her points. The “... tiny red-faced…” description of the baby highlighted the fact that it was born prematurely only days prior. Also, the “... birdlike face” of the mother created a relation in the reader’s thoughts between the mother and birds who are iconic for caring for their young. The most important detail included in this section is the gesture on Obasan’s part for this young mother. The young lady had nothing for her baby, “not even diapers.” So in an effort to help this woman in some way, Obasan wrapped up some food in a cloth and gave it to her. This is very important to the story because it shows that even in their darkest times her people are still giving and will sacrifice what little they have for someone who has even less. By including details and speaking in first person singular point of view the author made what was happening feel much more personal and real because instead of a generalized group that is being terrorized, it’s individuals and shows the author’s pride in her
Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero explores the pitfalls of adolescence and the struggles that go along with growing up. This book reveals the mind of a less than average teenage girl and the aspects of her tumultuous life. From this it is inferred that a theme for this novel could be that sometimes the difficult experiences in your life can make you stronger.
In Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Sayuri demonstrates that when the forces of fate and free will come into collision, the lack of determination to grasp control of one’s life will lead to a
Nisa: The life and Words of a !Kung Woman was written by an incredible anthropologist, Marjorie Shostak. While doing research and anthropological field-work in the Dobe regions of Africa, she studies women, Nisa, above all, who grabs her attention from the !Kung tribe. Marjorie Shostak does research and studies their culture, language, rituals, practices, and different aspects that make this specific culture so interesting to read about. The author narrates her interviews, observations, and analyses of the !Kung tribe from her field-work. Sexuality and the controls on sexual behavior are important aspects that Shostak describes as Nisa, a phenomenal woman in her culture experiences.
Have you ever fallen in love with a ten-year-old girl? Chances are probably not. In The Tale of Genji, translated by Royall Tyler, the hero does fall in love with one—our heroine, however. The book tells the story of the esteemed Genji’s—son of the Japanese Emperor—various love and sexual experiences. Chapter five focusses specifically on his pursuit of Murasaki.
Today when we think of courage we relate it to a vigorous person who saves innocent people from fiery building, but even though it might not be obvious, acts of courage are performed all around you everyday. When My Name was Keoko, by Linda Sue Park is about a girl named Sun-hee whose life was changed when the Japanese invaded her home country of Korea during World War II. When the Japanese took over Korea, they changed every aspect of the Korean culture from what food they eat for dinner to what plants they can grow in their gardens. Sun-Hee and her family were not going to back down by the minatory rules of the Japanese government and decided to stand up for their rights in every way possible. Throughout the book every member of the Kim family preformed contumacious acts that are penalized with severe treatments or a beating and jail time if caught. Furthermore, even though you may not realize it, courage is being shown all the time throughout the book When My Name was Keoko.
At first, the four main characters are all nameless but with the appellation---the father, the son, the daughter and the mother. Generally speaking, if authors want their writings to be understood easily, they always choose to set names for the characters, which also can avoid confusion. But in this novel, the author must mean to express a special meaning through the nameless main characters. On one hand, it is thought that the experiences of this nameless Japanese American family is not a single example but the epitome of what all Japanese American encountered at that time. Nearly 120,000 Japanese American were taken from their homes in the spring and early summer of 1942 and incarcerated in concentration camps by the United States government.(Roger Daniels, 3) On the other hand, what is more significant, the namelessness of the characters also indicates the loss of their identities. Because they are Japanese Ameican, they are different from the real American natives in their habits, w...
In particular places such as Kyoto's exclusive Pontocho district and Tokyo's Akasaka nightclub strip, the Western visitor can still see the traditional Japanese geisha and glimpse what seems to be an exotic relic from the remote past. The geisha, conspicuous by her costume, her walk, and even by her mode of transport (the rickshaw), has become for many a symbol or the old Japan. In one recent descriptive travel book on Japan, for example, the following picture is painted:
The plays of a crazed person are renowned enough to be one of the five categories in Noh plays. Noh play does not mean that a crazed person has a mental disorder clinically, but it means that he or she becomes insane because of a mental shock from a certain situation. Several cultures as well as Japan have the theaters that portray mad women. Ancient Greece and Elizabethan England presented the plays about mad women such as mother and crones (Bainbridge). Of all crazed person plays, it is popular that crazed women lose her mind by the grief and resentment of losing her child or loved one in Japan. Dojoji is about a crazed woman who was betrayed by loved one. The daughter of the lord who became a crazed woman later believed that she would get married to a priest who stayed her house every year, but the priest had no mind to marry her. Thus, she got upset and turned into a snake, and she killed him who hid in the bell in Dojoji temple. Even though long time passed, she felt resentment and changed to snake again. However, she disappeared for the pray of priests. I will analyze crazed woman’s madness in Dojoji: why she becomes insane and how the madness is expressed in Noh play.
Masooma Alsultan representing race paper 1 March 20, 2014. The mysterious identity of Japanese American and Mexican American After the United States had gained its independence, immigrants began to arrive in the American lands. And in the late 1800s, the immigrants’ situation changed. Many Americans started to look at the immigrants, as if they were different.
Recently the concerns of women around their equality in society has become a hotly debated topic in the public spot light. Much of the debate concerns women and the ingrained sexism that permeates most cultures. Many women's activists feel that this ingrained sexism has widened the gap between men and women in a political, social, and economic sense. And for the most part they do have strong evidence to support these claims. Women have suffered through millennia of male dominated societies where treatment of women has been, and in some cases still is, inhuman. Women are treated like subhuman creatures that have only exist to be used for procreate and to be subjugated by men for household use. It has only been very recently that women have become recognized as equals in the eyes of men. Equals in the sense that they have the same political and social rights as males. While the situation has improved, women still have to deal with a male oriented world. Often women in the workplace are thought of as inferior and as a liability. This can be due to concerns about maternity leave, or women with poor leadership skills. But also in part it is due because of the patriarchy that controls all aspects and dynamics of the culture, family, politics, and economy. Even developed countries like The United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and France, could be classified as a patriarchies. These countries may not agree with this notion because of expansive, but not complete changes, that have gradually equalized women in society. However, there are developed countries that openly express a patriarchy and have enacted little societal changes to bring equality to women. Japan is one such country, and t...
The Secret Life of Geisha is a documentary film about the hidden life of geisha women in Japan. Geisha are Japanese women who entertain man through dance and singing, the term geisha as defined by the film means, “artist”. The film discusses the history of geisha, from their first appearance in the 1600s and through the major historical year of Japan from Meiji Restoration to World War II. In the 1800s, the West were confused between the image of geisha and prostitutes. The image of geisha throughout history have been clouded by prostitutes. As stated in the film, “Geisha wears her OB as the sash tied in the back”, and “Prostitutes wears their OB in the front”, beyond this distinction the geisha are the presence of a select elite, unlike prostitutes geisha livelihood isn’t exactly sex. The major period of change in terms of the roles and status of geisha was when the group of Samurai warriors began a rebellion against the Shogun's government, they used the tea house as a meeting space and with the support of geisha, the disaffected Samurai defeated the ruling of Shogun. It was 1868 when the geisha were allied to the most powerful group of people of that time, the Samurai. Another transition was the most important historical transition of
...e novel is a figurative war between pre-WW2 Japan and post-WW2 Japan and how the author portrays Fusako as a woman who was raised in the old ways of Japan must now try to adjust to its new westernized ways and avoid those who oppose the new Japan where in the past women weren’t allow to run businesses, but now she is, as well as how she eagerly seeks another mate due to the fact that she’s over thirty and single while trying to be the provider and nurturing mother to her fatherless son Noboru.
I believe Tokyo Ghoul by Sui Ishida is a must read for people who love mangas. Ken Kaneki, the main character, is first introduced as an average, shy university student. The manga is told from his perspective and documents his struggles and emotions as he is forced to adapt to a ghoul’s lifestyle after a ghoul’s organs were transplanted into him, making him a half ghoul. The fact the story was told from the ‘bad’ people’s side was something that made the plot very enjoyable for me, because it is a change from constantly viewing the events from the ‘good’ side’s perspective. The point of view had a massive impact on my overall thoughts of the manga, because it showed how Kaneki, the ‘main bad guy’, was in fact a gentle-hearted person, unlike
The story follows a 10 year old girl named Chihiro who, upon moving to a new neighbourhood, gets lost in a spirit world. She must figure out how to get back to the world she once knew, along with saving her parents who have been transformed into pigs as a consequence of eating food that was meant for the spirits. She discovers a bathhouse that the spirits go to, and is approached by a young apprentice named Haku that she must ask the boiler man, Kamaji, for a job. Although Kamaji turns her away, he leaves her with the advice to ask the witch Yubaba for a job, the witch who also owns the bathhouse and is Haku’s master.