Independent Reading Essay

Kevin Joyce

4 October, 2010

Ryan Gallagher

Senior CP

In Arthur Golden’s novel “Memoirs of a Geisha” the character Sayuri’s passion of her love for the Chairman conflicts directly with Nobu’s passion for loving her, ultimately resulting in Sayuri becoming the Chairman’s mistress revealing that he was in love with her even though he caught her having sex with the Minister, hoping that it would be Nobu walking in on them.

In the beginning of Arthur Golden’s novel “Memoirs of a Geisha”, Chiyo, soon to be Sayuri, was a young girl who grew in a fishing village. “He seemed so fascinating to me, even the fish smell on his hands was a kind of perfume. If I had never known him, I’m sure I would not have become a geisha.” This quote ties in with the main idea, because if Chiyo never met Mr. Tanaka, then her future would have been totally different because Sayuri would have never existed and she would have never met the Chairman.

Toward the end of the novel, Sayuri tried to get Nobu to stop loving her once and for all, and ended up failing but because of this she became the Chairman’s mistress. “ I can scarcely remember anything after that door opened. For I think the blood may have drained out of me. I went so old and numb. I knew the minister climbed off me, or perhaps I pushed him off. I do remember weeping and asking is he’d seen the same thing I had, whether it really had been the Chairman standing there in the doorway.” This quote ties into the main idea completely. This was the climax of the novel because it was Sayuri’s final plan to get rid of Nobu and to be with the Chairman, only half of this came out right, because Sayuri becomes the Chairman’s mistress.

On the very last page of the novel, Arthur Golden wrote a quote that blends in perfectly with the entire novel. “ Whether our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.” The reason why this quote ties into the book is because, every conflict that Sayuri came across, she overcame it and lived through her new life as if it never happened. She changed her life style, found the man of her dreams, she became a new person.