Throughout the book readers get a hint of the theme Gender Roles.
During the time period that the book was written males and females had very
different roles/ jobs in the Japanese society. Women who were sold as slaves
(the geishas) were used for entertainment, to accompany men places and be their
sex partners. Those who were unable to become geishas were usually maids, cooks
or had other housekeeping jobs. The men however were the money makers and
suppliers for the town, so they were either in the army, owners of businesses,
or factory workers. In this book the male main characters were army officials
and owners of Iwamura Electric. Chiyo after being sold and taken from her home
starts off as a maid because she was too young to be used for anything else. As
she grew older she ruined her chances of becoming a geisha on her own by running
away. In doing this she grew depressed because in Gion (the town where she
lived) if you weren’t a geisha your life was pretty much miserable. Women
weren’t allowed to work in the factories because that was a man’s job. Mameha
however takes Chiyo on as her younger sister and this allowed for Chiyo to be a
geisha. When Chiyo takes on the role of an apprentice she begins to have
flashbacks of her old life and wishes she had never made the wish to become a
geisha, This is stated on page 167 Chiyo says, “ It was the little girl named
Chiyo….Sayuri (her new geisha name)…had destroyed her.” This shows gender roles
because she is wishing for something more than what her gender allowed her to
do in her new town. Another quote that shows gender roles is on page 51 “ My
task was to dump water into the tank so that Auntie could flush the toilet a
few times to clear it out.” This goes to show that slave women, those who
weren’t geishas or were too young to learn the ways of a geisha were given the
unsightly tasks of the okiya this was their way of making money to pay back
their debt of being bought by the head of the okiya. These women and children
couldn’t make a real living or buy anything for themselves because factories
didn’t allow women to work there. Lastly on page 306 Chiyo says “On impulse I
reached into my obi for the brocade card holder kept there, and discreetly
removed one card, which I passed to him. Geisha always carry name card with them
just as businessmen carry business cards.” This is one of the ways that men and
women have similar roles you can clearly see that the business cards are used
for completely different reasons. You would never catch a geisha giving out a
business card; likewise you would never catch a man giving out a geishas name
card. In conclusion, in the book Memoirs of a geisha the theme of gender roles
is very prominent throughout the book.
The themes of Appearance vs. Reality and Gender Roles not only
connect to the book throughout the book, they also connect to each other as
well. Each gender has its own stereotypes, Males are just out for sex and women
are no more than a material item. The reality part of that is that most men are
not just out for sex and are very successful in their job. Women on the other
hand work particularly hard and are worth more than they are given credit for.
Both themes fit together very well because there is always a reality for each
stereotype whether it is gender or their jobs.
During the time period that the book was written males and females had very
different roles/ jobs in the Japanese society. Women who were sold as slaves
(the geishas) were used for entertainment, to accompany men places and be their
sex partners. Those who were unable to become geishas were usually maids, cooks
or had other housekeeping jobs. The men however were the money makers and
suppliers for the town, so they were either in the army, owners of businesses,
or factory workers. In this book the male main characters were army officials
and owners of Iwamura Electric. Chiyo after being sold and taken from her home
starts off as a maid because she was too young to be used for anything else. As
she grew older she ruined her chances of becoming a geisha on her own by running
away. In doing this she grew depressed because in Gion (the town where she
lived) if you weren’t a geisha your life was pretty much miserable. Women
weren’t allowed to work in the factories because that was a man’s job. Mameha
however takes Chiyo on as her younger sister and this allowed for Chiyo to be a
geisha. When Chiyo takes on the role of an apprentice she begins to have
flashbacks of her old life and wishes she had never made the wish to become a
geisha, This is stated on page 167 Chiyo says, “ It was the little girl named
Chiyo….Sayuri (her new geisha name)…had destroyed her.” This shows gender roles
because she is wishing for something more than what her gender allowed her to
do in her new town. Another quote that shows gender roles is on page 51 “ My
task was to dump water into the tank so that Auntie could flush the toilet a
few times to clear it out.” This goes to show that slave women, those who
weren’t geishas or were too young to learn the ways of a geisha were given the
unsightly tasks of the okiya this was their way of making money to pay back
their debt of being bought by the head of the okiya. These women and children
couldn’t make a real living or buy anything for themselves because factories
didn’t allow women to work there. Lastly on page 306 Chiyo says “On impulse I
reached into my obi for the brocade card holder kept there, and discreetly
removed one card, which I passed to him. Geisha always carry name card with them
just as businessmen carry business cards.” This is one of the ways that men and
women have similar roles you can clearly see that the business cards are used
for completely different reasons. You would never catch a geisha giving out a
business card; likewise you would never catch a man giving out a geishas name
card. In conclusion, in the book Memoirs of a geisha the theme of gender roles
is very prominent throughout the book.
The themes of Appearance vs. Reality and Gender Roles not only
connect to the book throughout the book, they also connect to each other as
well. Each gender has its own stereotypes, Males are just out for sex and women
are no more than a material item. The reality part of that is that most men are
not just out for sex and are very successful in their job. Women on the other
hand work particularly hard and are worth more than they are given credit for.
Both themes fit together very well because there is always a reality for each
stereotype whether it is gender or their jobs.