“Water never waits. It changes shape and flows around things, and find the secret paths no one else has thought about - the tiny hole through the roof or the bottom of the box.” (Golden 10) This metaphor is one of many that Arthur Golden uses in his novel Memoirs of a Geisha. Authors use metaphors and imagery to generate tone in literature, but in this case the recurring nature imagery achieves more than just creating feeling. Golden’s use of symbolism characterizes the variety of beliefs people held during that time. His gratuitous use of Japanese language as well as cultural references serve as a link between his fictional world and the real world.
One way Golden establishes a world connection is through exposition. He explains many aspects of Japanese tradition such as tea ceremonies, religion, and festivals. There are scenes that focus on superstition, and many beliefs relate to gender roles. In one scene, Mameha prays before three jizos representing the three children she'd lost. There is heavy discussion of almanacs and fortune telling, such as when Satsu ran away, or when Sayuri became an apprentice.
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Many comparisons were in passing, such as when apprentice geisha were called “perhaps the most brilliantly colored primates of all.” (Golden 168) The male characters in the novel are not the only ones who perpetuate this dehumanizing behavior. One example is the homeless eel analogy Mameha uses to explain the concept of mizuage. (Golden 232) Men’s body parts were compared to eels looking for a home, and women compared to caves. Men are considered living things that need satisfaction; women are reduced to non-living things that exist only to support others. Even Sayuri is complicit in this behavior, comparing Etsuko to a grain of rice and saying that soon, “she too would be [thrown into the pot, and fluff up white and delicious, to be consumed].” (Golden
Franklin D. Roosevelt was once quoted saying, “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds”. Within this universe of endless possibilities, it is physically impossible for anything to stay completely constant. Human beings, as a part of the universe, are no exception. Individuals are, however, able to separate themselves from the rest by their thoughts, feelings, and actions. At any given moment, they are able to change their course of existence, possess the will and mental freedom to act and perceive in a goal directed manner. In Arthur Golden’s novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, Sayuri Nitta recalls her experiences throughout her journey of becoming a geisha. Sayuri Nitta, whose original name was Chiyo Sakamoto, is a strikingly beautiful girl who grew up in an impoverished fishing
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.
William Faulkner overwhelms his audience with the visual perceptions that the characters experience, making the reader feel utterly attached to nature and using imagery how a human out of despair can make accusations. "If I jump off the porch I will be where the fish was, and it all cut up into a not-fish now. I can hear the bed and her face and them and I can...
The book, Memoirs of a Geisha, is about a girl, Chiyo, who was born in a fishing village in Yoroido, Japan. Chiyo was born into a lower income village; she and her sister, Satsu, were sold by their father into the geisha society to make up for the lack of medicine that her mom needed. Satsu ended up in the pleasure district in Kyoto and Chiyo was forced to go to an Okiya house to work to become a Geisha for the rest of her life. The meaning of a geisha is artisan, it is a Japanese hostess trained to entertain men with conversation, dance, and song.
Though often extensive detail may be condemned as mere flowery language, in understanding Sir Gawain and the Green Knight one must make special emphasis on it. In color and imagery itself, the unknown author paints the very fibers of this work, allowing Sir Gawain to discern the nuances of ritualistic chivalry and truth. His quest after the Green Knight is as simple as ones quest toward himself. Through acute awareness of the physical world he encounters Gawain comes to an understanding of the world beyond chivalry, a connection to G-d, the source of truth. He learns, chivalry, like a machine, will always function properly, but in order to derive meaning from its product he must allow nature to affect him.
Particular behaviour and traits are attached with a specified gender. Due to this, the social learning and classification founded on gender are swiftly imbibed into by an individual. Children become aware of the distinction between male and female and definite social responsibility that each gender has to perform in society (Blakemore & hill 2008 , and Goffman 1977 ). Women are often viewed as tender and subtle and men are regarded as more competent to bear pain and rough and tough. Therefore, women are considered as weaker sex. In relationship, the women are the end and men are supposed to be follower or chaser. Women are physically weak and smaller compared to men and physical strength is vested with male realm (Goffman 1977
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.
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
This idea is expressed prominently in John Foulcher’s For the Fire and Loch Ard Gorge. For the Fire entails a journey of someone collecting kindling as they witness a kookaburra kill a lizard, Foulcher represents his idea through the use of metaphor, “a kookaburra hacks with its axe-blade beak.” This metaphor represents the beak in weaponised form, as it is compared with a violent axe. This evokes a sense of threat and intimidation towards the kookaburra, which contrasts to societies general interpretation of the ‘laughing kookaburra,’ thereby challenging the reader's perceptions of beauty in the natural world. Also, this comparison of the kookaburra offers a second understanding for the readers to interpret of the kookaburra. Similarly, in Loch Ard Gorge, Foulcher uses strong visual imagery, “savage dark fish are tearing their prey apart, blood phrasing the water decked with light,” to communicate the violence of the ‘savage’ fish to readers in a visual, gruesome manner. Thereby evoking a feeling of disgust towards the situation, as a visual description of blood is shown and Foulcher uses provoking, gruesome adjectives to communicate the fish's brutality. Foulcher expresses these ideas to communicate the abilities of nature, and provide a necessary ‘reality check’ for the readers, to review the beauty they see nature and understand the barbarity at the heart of everything. Although ruthlessness and brutality that nature can show are unintentional and immoral, this harm is a large part of the cycle nature needs to survive and thrive, and these factors can counteract assumed beauty and
An American film based on the best-selling novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, is a famous movie that represents one aspect of American culture that is a review of the traditional images of Asian women as presented in the American movies. Integrating two sources from the article "Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck" by Jessica Hagedorn and the film Memoirs of a Geisha, these two sources show American reviews of Asian women and Asian women’s preference which challenge the typical American cultural representation of Asian women in Hollywood. The film Memoirs of a Geisha is about the story of a young girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold into slavery by her family.
Historical facts are cleverly infused into the body of the novel that gives the reader an authentic and classic impression of the story. A clear view of the discrimination that existed in that time period against non-whites and women was evident by the time the conclusion of the book was reached. For instance, a conversation takes place between characters in the novel in which civilization is said to be going to pieces as a result of "The Rise of the Coloured Empires". Women are also constantly referred to as "girls".
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
The Heian period(794-1185), the so-called golden age of Japanese culture, produced some of the finest works of Japanese literature.1 The most well known work from this period, the Genji Monogatari, is considered to be the “oldest novel still recognized today as a major masterpiece.”2 It can also be said that the Genji Monogatari is proof of the ingenuity of the Japanese in assimilating Chinese culture and politics. As a monogatari, a style of narrative with poems interspersed within it, the characters and settings frequently allude to Chinese poems and stories. In addition to displaying the poetic prowess that the Japanese had attained by this time period, the Genji Monogatari also demonstrates how politics and gender ideals were adopted from the Chinese.
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
Nature is often a focal point for many author’s works, whether it is expressed through lyrics, short stories, or poetry. Authors are given a cornucopia of pictures and descriptions of nature’s splendor that they can reproduce through words. It is because of this that more often than not a reader is faced with multiple approaches and descriptions to the way nature is portrayed. Some authors tend to look at nature from a deeper and personal observation as in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, while other authors tend to focus on a more religious beauty within nature as show in Gerard Manley Hopkins “Pied Beauty”, suggesting to the reader that while to each their own there is always a beauty to be found in nature and nature’s beauty can be uplifting for the human spirit both on a visual and spiritual level.