Dec 28, 2009

Memoirs of a Geisha | Style

Imagery
Consistent with much Japanese art and literature, Memoirs of a Geisha includes a great deal of nature imagery. Traditionally, Japanese art features trees, insects, and bodies of water, just as poetry (most notably the haiku) often presents images from nature as metaphors for life’s lessons. Golden’s use of natural and Japanese imagery in Memoirs of a Geisha brings his fiction in line with this tradition and gives the novel a decidedly Japanese feel. Sayuri recalls a client who once mentioned her hometown of Yoroido, and she describes her feelings:...