Purpose In Arthur Golden's Memoirs Of A Geisha

In order to fulfill a greater purpose in life, it is imperative to first understand what that purpose is; only then can one take the appropriate measures to accomplish the goals that they have set for themselves. Arthur Golden addresses this in his novel Memoirs of a geisha in which he uses Sayuri’s experiences in becoming a geisha to express his belief that in order to fulfil her destiny, she must first understand it, then take action in order to achieve her destiny or risk becoming a product of her environment. Throughout Sayuri’s childhood, she allowed her surroundings to dictate what happened in her life, rather than try to understand what purpose she wanted to achieve. When she finally began to search for greater purpose than being a maid,

Hatsumomo pointed out that in her current circumstance, Sayuri would remain a maid for the rest of her life and had no hope of ever becoming a geisha. When the realization hit that she would live the rest of her life without the purpose that geisha seemed to possess; Sayuri was overcome with sadness. She explained her exact fears by saying “I felt my life stretching out before me like a long path leading nowhere” (109). Now that Sayuri understood she needed a purpose the thought of living out her entire life as a maid made her collapse to the ground in tears. It was at that moment that her destiny found her. He was a kind man of about forty-five and was known as “Mr. Chairman” by those around him. Sayuri states how much her simple interaction with this man meant to her later by saying “From the moment the Chairman had first spoken to me, I'd forgotten that I was watching for a sign about my future. But when I saw the bundle he held in his hand, it looked so much like the shrouded moth, I knew I'd come upon the sign at last.” (113). This interaction was the sign that she was looking for. A purpose in life that could only be identified by the intense feeling of purpose that she felt that with this man.. Now that Sayuri understood her destiny she could properly explain her next actions by saying “the point wasn't to become a geisha, but to be one. To become a geisha . . . well, that was hardly a

Her drive to be successful was evident in everything she did and most clearly described when she said “I was certainly as determined as anyone to work single-mindedly until I reached my goal. Since meeting the Chairman on the street that day back in the spring, I had longed for nothing so much as the chance to become a geisha and find a place for myself in the world.” (152). This determination as well as having an already famous older sister, Mameha, is what allowed Sayuri to become one of the most famous geisha in all of Gion. She worked so diligently in order to learn the arts required in the life of a geisha because, in truth, she was already years behind every other apprentice geisha in the city. Most young women training to be geisha were either raised by a former geisha, or at least had seen them growing up in Kyoto. Even if Sayuri had begun her training as soon as she arrived at the okiya, the other girls would have had several years of experience on her. It also didn’t help that she received no help from Mother, the owner of the okiya. While most apprentice geisha’s chores are given to other maids of the okiya, Sayuri had to learn to balance her lessons, maid’s work, as well as entertaining men with Mameha. She commented on how difficult her life had become when she reflected on her first six months of training and explains that