Final Thoughts on Memoirs of a Geisha

I’ve finished my outside reading book, Memoirs of a Geisha, for about a week now, but I wanted to reflect on the quality of Golden’s work and what I thought about the novel. Overall, my sentiments towards the end of the novel are quite conflicting. Even though I wasn’t necessarily disappointed with the ending, I wasn’t quite satisfied either. I’m not in accord with the way Golden decided to portray Sayuri’s decision to end things with Nobu, which was completely unexpected.

I guess I found it difficult to put myself in Sayuri’s shoes, because she is so in love with the Chairman that she is desperate to do anything, at whatever cost (such as pretending to sleep with the minister only to infuriate Nobu), to prevent Nobu from declaring herself as her danna. I understand Sayuri’s emotionally-torn state, but I kind empathize with Nobu because he is a man who is hard to please, yet he professes his love to Sayuri (in an extremely subtle way) despite his seemingly cold and heartless character. Nobu explains, with difficulty, to Sayuri that he doesn’t “much like geisha…But [he’s] always felt that [Sayuri] isn’t exactly like all the others” (Golden 386), which for Nobu, is a big deal, considering how unemotional and unexpressive he usually is. At the same time, however, I understand what Sayuri feels. The Chairman is the only man who showed her compassion and tenderness before she was a geisha. He’s the only man who truly sees the beauty in her soul, which is an extremely unique and rare quality to find in someone. Thus, I understand why Sayuri would feel such an urge to be with the Chairman; after all she’s been through, she deserves to be happy with a man who showed her kindness when her world seemed to be deprived of any scrap of joy or positivity.

The conversation between the Chairman and Sayuri in Chapter 34 is really touching and wonderful, as Sayuri confesses to the Chairman that everything she has done has been “because of [her] feelings for the Chairman. Every step [she has] taken in [her] life since [she] was a child in Gion, has been in the hope of bringing [herself] closer to the [Chairman]” (416), which embodies the whole scope of Sayuri’s journey throughout the novel. The Chairman was there before her transition from a caterpillar to a butterfly, he is the one who led her to her destiny, not Nobu, not the General, and certainly not “Dr. Crabs.” It was always the Chairman, even from the beginning, so much so that Sayuri felt “such a longing to turn to the Chairman and ask if he recalled a day several years ago when he’d shown kindness to a young girl” (205), the very first time she sees him at the sumo wrestling match. The fact that it took years for Sayuri to work up the courage to let the Chairman know her true feelings demonstrates the depth of her love and passion for the man, since if [she were] to have a rescuer, [she] wanted it to be the Chairman and no one else” (208). This quote also emphasizes the aspect of the damsel in distress archetype that we repeatedly see emerge in Sayuri’s character throughout the novel. However, in the end, Sayuri breaks free from this confining role (when she quits being a geisha) and the burden of her “destiny,” by becoming the Chairman’s mistress, and ultimately fulfilling her goal to self-discovery and independence.