According to Saiful, A. (2012) Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is a novel which tells about the struggle of a woman from the exploitation that fights and learns about all aspects of geisha life. They learn how to be beautiful woman, and are admired by many people. Geisha is seen as a woman of high social class who looks beautiful, elegant and behavioral. Based on the reason, the author chooses the title: Woman Exploitation in Arthur Golden’s the Memoirs of a Geisha as Feminism Study.
Memoirs of a Geisha are full of surprises, especially to Western readers unfamiliar with the mysterious Japanese geisha. Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, is the novel's author, an American man from Tennessee. Arthur Golden's fascination with Asian culture was sparked years before he began writing Memoirs of a Geisha, as he holds degrees in Japanese history and art history with a specialization in Japanese art. It was while learning and working abroad that he met Mineko Iwasaki, a retired geisha who agreed to numerous interviews with Golden in preparation for his novel. Iwasaki provided critical "inside" information that gives the novel both integrity and intrigue. The rags riches story of Sayuri, the novel's heroine, is a first person account, as if she is relating her life story to an American professor. The novel addresses themes such as freedom, beauty, metamorphosis, and gender relationships. Upon publication in 1997, Memoirs of a Geisha quickly became a bestseller, an impressive showing for a first time author. Memoirs of a Geisha have been translated into more than twenty languages and have sold more than four million copies in English. Critics and readers alike have embraced the novel, and in the first few years after publication, it was a popular book club selection (Nanang, M. 2010).
Memoirs of a Geisha tells the story of a young girl, Chiyo, who is sold into the life of a geisha and her struggle as a geisha to find love. Tells the story of Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold into a life of servitude by her parents when she is nine years old. Chiyo is taken in by the proprietress of a geisha house, Mother (Kaori Momoi), where she works to pay off the debt of her purchase and the soiling of a silk kimono owned by a well known geisha, Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), which Chiyo was blackmailed into defacing by another geisha, Hatsumomo (Gong Li). One day while crying in the street, the 3 young Chiyo is noticed by the Chairman (Ken Watanabe), who buys her an iced sorbet and gives her his handkerchief. Inspired by his act of kindness, Chiyo resolves to become a geisha so that she may one day become a part of the Chairman’s life. Chiyo, now a young woman, is taken under the wing of Mameha, head of a rival geisha house. Under Mameha's tutelage, the girl Chiyo becomes Sayuri, the most famous geisha in all Gion, Kyoto. Hatsumomo becomes Sayuri's rival and seeks to destroy her, however Hatsumomo ends up destroying herself instead after setting fire to the okiya. (Dalby, 1983). Sayuri, through her work as a geisha, is reunited with the Chairman, whom she has secretly loved since she was a girl, although she is led to believe he has no memory of who she was before she became a geisha. Her prosperous life is cut short by the outbreak of World War II and while the safety of Sayuri and Mameha is ensured by the Chairman, they must endure a life of hard labour. After the war, Sayuri is reunited with Mameha, and they become geisha once more. The Chairman arranges to meet Sayuri, where he finally reveals to her that he knows she is Chiyo. He tells her that he was responsible for sending Mameha to her so that she may fulfill her dreams of becoming a geisha. Sayuri finally reveals her love to the Chairman, which she has been harboring for over fifteen years. The novel ends with their loving embrace and a stroll through a beautiful Japanese garden with waterfalls and rocks.
According to Widyayanti, D. (2013) the finding of the study showed that women in “Memoirs of a Geisha” novel got discrimination that reflected to the feminist literary criticism. There are five kinds of gender bias that expressed in this novel. First was stereotype. Sayuri was stereotyped as a bad luck in the fishing place and she was stereotyped as a prostitute when she had conversation with western people. Second was subordinate. Sayuri became a geisha because she had no choice to get a better life. This is happened because of the assumption that women cannot work as men. Third was marginalization. The geishas in this novel came from poor family. They could not get a better education to have better life. They need men to fulfill their needs. Fourth was violence. The men were not respect women as well. Fifth was burden. The burden expressed when Satsu had to work since she was a little girl. The burden as the oldest daughter made her did the households things and work to support her family.
After having analyzed the novel, Sayuri’s feminist attitude is built because all her lives is always prosecuted to be a strongly woman. Sayuri’s character represents as an extraordinary woman. She shows the quality as a young woman who could raise dignity through her struggle in facing life by her good deed. To the eyes of feminists, Sayuri is a symbol a strong and independent woman who has highly survived in facing the details of life in the geisha society and succeeded in becoming respected person. Thus, it becomes the good example for women in the whole society. In this novel Arthur Golden wants to describe that in order to get their rights as human beings women should be smart and talented. From this point, Sayuri is interesting to be discussed from feminist point of view. She is a woman in the late twentieth century who tries to survive in a very strict society by deciding to be a geisha.
In patriarchy, a social system positioning a man as a superior and a woman as inferior creates the pattern of sex role behavior which embedded 5 deeply in the mind of both man and woman. It means that the system of the culture and their dependent to men, positioning woman easily to be exploited. Mary Wollstonecraft, one of feminist, authored “A Vindication of Their Right of Women (1792)”. She maintained that women should stand up for their righter and not allow their male dominated society to define what it means to be woman. Woman themselves should get similar chance like man. Most importantly, they should change the patriarchal assumption that women are inferior to men (Nanang, M. 2010).
REFERENCES
Nanang, M. (2010). WOMEN’S POSITION IN MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA WRITTEN BY ARTHUR GOLDEN (1997): A FEMINIST APPROACH. Retrieved from: http://eprints.ums.ac.id/11761/4/File_2._Cover_and_Chapter_I.pdf
Saiful, A. (November 5, 2012). Woman Exploitation in Arthur Golden’s the Memoirs of a Geisha as Feminism Study. Retrieved from: https://www.unisbank.ac.id/ojs/index.php/fbib2/article/view/742?PageSpeed=noscript#:~:text=Based%20on%20the%20reason%2C%20the,a%20Geisha%20as%20Feminism%20Study.&text=Sayuri's%20character%20represents%20as%20an,life%20by%20her%20good%20deed.
Widyayanti, D. (2013). "MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA NOVEL BY ARTHUR GOLDEN”: AN ANALYSIS ON FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM PERSPECTIVE. Retrieved from: http://eprints.umm.ac.id/29347/.
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