Limiting Beliefs

The main character from Memoirs of a Geisha is Chiyo, now known as Sayuri, her geisha name; she has just become an apprentice geisha.

The main conflict holding "Sayuri" back from her dream to become a successful geisha is Hatsumomo. Hatsumomo,a full-fledged geisha that lives in the same okiya as Sayuri, is extremely jealous of Sayuri's beauty and feels very threatened by her. So, Hatsumomo has decided to try her hardest to ruin Sayuri's chances at becoming a great geisha, since her potential seems so very high.

This has been limiting Sayuri from going to a lot of parties with her sister geisha, Mameha. A sister geisha's job is to help bring an apprentice geisha out of obsurity so that they, like their sister geisha, will become very successful. In return, the sister geisha will get a portion of the apprentice's earnings once they're a full-fledged geisha like herself. However, it has been very tricky for Mameha to introduce Sayuri to all the great tea houses of Gion because she continues to encounter Hatsumomo every time Sayuri accompanies her. Hatsumomo has bribed servants from various tea houses so that they will tell her when and where Sayuri will be. With this information, Hatsumomo always arrives shortly after Sayuri where ever she goes, and tries her hardest to embarrass her by making up horrid stories about her and telling them to the gentlemen visiting the tea houses.

For a while, Mameha tells Sayuri that she cannot join her on her excursions to the tea houses. Sayuri can't enter another tea house until Mameha comes up with a plan to rid them of Hatsumomo. Finally though, Mameha comes up with any idea, inspired by a sumo wrestler match the two of them watch. Mameha won't tell Sayuri what it is though, for she is worried that her idea could easily leak, and be sent straight to Hatsumomo.

If I were able to talk to Sayuri, the advice that I'd give her would be to not pay attention to Hatsumomo, and realize why she is acting the way she is. I'd tell Sayuri to look at the optimistic side of things; she has been to several tea houses and because all over her visits have been brief, this is probably getting the men curious about her. Currently, Sayuri certainly isn't sinking in to obsurity. All that Sayuri can do for the time being is wait for Mameha's instructions and follow them. Mameha has been a geisha for a long time, and has had to deal with Hatsumomo for a longer time as well. If anyone can out smart Hatsumomo it's probably Mameha.

Sayuri's ordinary world is the okiya, the threshold she will have to cross is out smarting Hatsumomo, which leaves her new adventure to be becoming a full-fledged geisha.