Memoirs of a Geisha | Techniques

Memoirs of a Geisha Techniques

Memoirs of a Geisha is particularly powerful because Sayuri's voice is spoken in the first person and takes the reader directly to her sentiments and emotions. At the end of the novel, for example, Sayuri reasons that although she had hoped her life would be perfect, she finds that "I cannot tell you what it is that guides us in this life; but for me, I fell toward the Chairman just as a stone must fall towards the earth. . . ." Her destiny, both good and bad, was intertwined with the fates of a few key people.

Most of the themes in the novel are created by the use of careful metaphors. At first, Sayuri's childhood life is compared to that of a moth, held still and fragile in her memory until, upon the slightest touch, it crumbles in favor of reality. Later, her life is compared...
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