Key Moments In Memoirs Of A Geisha

The key moment when one experiences a move towards a psychological or moral maturity is different for every single person, every single novel, and every single protagonist in a story. Sometimes, there are more than one “key moment” in a person's life, as in the case of Sayuri, the protagonist of the novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden. This historical fiction story tells of a young Japanese girl from a small fishing village, who is sent away to the big city of Gion in order to train to be a geisha. Throughout the novel, Sayuri sometimes loses her meaning and purpose in life, in being a geisha, but always eventually finds it; often times through encounters with other characters, sometimes by herself and her own thoughts. She meets
He is a man of very high authority, and runs an electricity company. The reader finds out later in the novel that he is a wealthy man, and Sayuri at this point in her life is not even close to being worthy of his attention. Yet, he was the only person that bothered to pay any attention to her. After conversing for a little bit, the Chairman gave Sayuri a coin wrapped in a handkerchief to buy some shaved ice from the nearby vendor in order to cheer her up. This is one of the key moments when Sayuri realizes that she does have purpose in life. Though the Chairman does not know this until later, this is one of the moments that Sayuri finally understands that she has a direction in life, a point to live up to. She has someone and something to live for. She says, “I felt as though I'd turned around to look in a different direction, so that I no longer faced backward toward the past, but forward toward the future... I knew I'd come upon the sign at last. I was thanking him for... well, for something I'm not sure I can explain even now. For showing me that something besides cruelty could be found in the world, I suppose.” (Golden,
It would be about a woman who grew up just following the wind of everyone else, living everyday mechanically and never fully enjoying it. Instead, this small interaction between the Chairman and Sayuri is what influences her throughout her existence. She finally finds her purpose in life in this small meeting, and this changes her views about herself very dramatically. From here on Sayuri lives, directed towards the Chairman, into meeting him again, and into Sayuri trying to live up to the Chairman’s expectation in order for his attention to be shone upon her. Before this, she had been just a small girl without a purpose in life. Her family was lost, and she was, in a way, lost as well, because she did not know how to deal with the raging waterfall of her problems, continuously pounding down on her. Now she has matured a little thanks to the Chairman, and realized her potential and place in