No Pain, No Gain: Memoirs of a Geisha

 Title: Memoirs of a Geisha            Date of Publication/ publisher: September 23, 1997, Alfred A. Knopf

Summary:

            A young girl by the name of Chio is sold into the Okiya geisha house and there she encounters the glamorous life as a Japanese entertainer. Though at first Chio has no motivation to become a geisha, she soon changes her mind when she meets a man known as “Chairman” and falls in love with him. She vows to become a great geisha so then one day, she would meet him again. Chio is taken in as an apprentice by a senior geisha by the name of Mameha and Chio blooms from a plain girl into the most well known geisha in Japan and even changing her name to Sayuri. Sayuri soon makes many enemies including her childhood friend Pumpkin due to her fame. Even so, Sayuri obtains her happily ever after by becoming the mistress of the Chairman at the end of the novel.

Quote:

“Mameha assured me that a man doesn’t cultivate a relationship with a fifteen-year-old apprentice geisha unless he has her mizuage in mind. ‘You can bet it isn’t your conversation he’s attracted to,’ she told me.” (Golden 233)

Reaction:

            Sayuri has learned to understand that she should not be naïve and trust people easily, especially the men who approach her. Sayuri understands that people that approach her will always have some sort of ulterior motive such as her mizuage. She has changed from when she was little and rather than being taken advantage of by men, she will use her feminine charms to bend men to her will. Sayuri has grown so much from the naïve girl she once was. Even so, she still can get hurt easily as it is not possible to totally change yourself.

Hungering for Love and Attention: Chinese Cinderella

Title: Chinese Cinderella                    Date of Publication/ publisher: March 13, 2001, Laurel Leaf

Summary:

Adeline Yen Mah is an unwanted daughter in her family who is blamed for the death of her late mother. She comes from a well off family in Shanghai and Tianjin, China and suffers from the mistreatment of her father, stepmother, and siblings. The only ones she can rely upon are her Grandfather Ye Ye and her Aunt Ba Ba. Throughout the story, Adeline tries to find a way to escape her miserable life such as reading stories and discovers her love for literature.

Adeline is separated from her aunt because her stepmother thought her aunt was a bad influence on Adeline. Adeline eventually gets sent to a school in Tianjin where she lives in the dorm, giving as little trouble to her family as possible. Adeline Yen Mah continues to study literature and is constantly at the top of her classes. Mah dedicates a play to her grandfather that wins a writing contest. She aspires to become a writer and is given permission by her father after much begging to study abroad in England with her brothers.

Quote:

“I tried to make it up to my aunt by studying hard and getting perfect report cards. Besides, that seemed to be the only way to please my father or get any attention from him whatsoever.” (Mah 51)

Reaction:

            Adeline Mah’s father has always ignored her existence since her mother died. Everyone in her family blames Adeline for the death of her mother. This causes Adeline to strive for attention by being the best she can be at school and excelling in learning. Despite her efforts for attention, it does little to gain her father’s praise. Eventually her hard work pays off as her father only let her study abroad because she was intelligent. She was only allowed to study abroad if she promised to study in the medical field and not literature; we know how that ends though seeing as Adeline couldn’t have written this book unless she studied literature instead.