Hatsummo In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's '

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Hatsumomo, is the antagonist of the novel and is always trying to make Chiyo suffer to get her to leave the okiya, which only provides conflict into the protagonist’s path towards maturation. “She can’t bear to have rivals”, reveals that even though Hatsumomo views herself as the the most beautiful geisha in Gion as pointed out by Awajiumi a retired sumo wrestler, “Maybe you’re just too pretty yourself to be able to see it elsewhere (Golden,123 & 60)”. She regards Chiyo as a rival because she finds her to be attractive contrast to Chiyo’s older sister, Satsu, who Hatsumomo refers as “That ugly sister of yours” to Chiyo (Golden, 48). Hatsumomo throughout the story does whatever it takes to tarnish Chiyo’s reputation in trying to become a well …show more content…

Hatsumomo is not only portrayed to be jealous but also a manipulator. For example, Mameha tells Chiyo the story of what led to her old friend, Hatsuoki having her reputation damaged when she became an apprentice geisha alongside Hatsumomo. Hatsumomo was able to get rid of Hatsuoki as a rival was through manipulation, she made up a story of Hatsuoki that had “no truth in it” and spread that story to people who were drunk because no one would suspect it was her since the drunk people would forget who the source of the false story was, although everyone already knew of Hatsumomo’s jealousy towards Hatsuoki (Golden, 122). Hatsumomo affected the life of the protagonist back when the protagonist was just a young girl, during her training to become a geisha, and upon becoming a geisha. The protagonist would be made rude remarks such as , “I once saw a dead man fished out of the river, and his tongue was just the same color as her eyes”, from Hatsumomo because she was spiteful of Chiyo (Golden, …show more content…

Upon Chiyo becoming a geisha, Hatsumomo would follow Chiyo and Mameha in their work as well as making sure that Pumpkin would no longer associate with Chiyo. Hatsumomo is cruel to everyone, Mother and Aunty let her do whatever because as long as Hatsumomo is being successful then that is all that matters to them for the okiya. The top geisha gained a lot more than just normal geisha and even had the availability to gain their freedom, which the freedom for them in the novel was to move out of the okiya that they worked for and live in their own place. For example, Mameha who takes Chiyo as her sister for Chiyo’s path onto becoming a geisha, was able to do this because she is a popular geisha who is extremely financially stable and successful in Gion, the geisha district. Mameha and Hatsumomo are two well known geishas in Gion who are very popular with customers, however, what made Mameha viewed as more successful in Chiyo’s views was that, unlike Hatsumomo, Mameha has her

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