The event that represents refusal of Sayuri's call to adventure in Memoirs of a Geisha is when she tries to escape the okiya when she is little. The reason this event is so significant is because it creates tension in the story's plot. Sayuri tries to escape so that she can go back home with her sister to their village of Yoroido. However, Sayuri is caught in the act and ends up with a few minor injuries. Sayuri's minor injuries are examined by a doctor, which adds more to Sayuri's debt to the okiya. As well, since Sayuri tried to escape the okiya, she was considered unreliable and not worth the risk to invest in as a geisha.
These events almost completely ruin Sayuri's chances of becoming a geisha. This is not only for the fact that the mother of Sayuri's okiya doesn't want to invest money for her but also because Sayuri's debt grows and grows. However, things end up turning around for Sayuri when a highly revered geisha offers to be Sayuri's sister geisha. The mother of Sayuri's okiya takes some time to decide whether to allow Sayuri a chance to become a geisha. In the end, she decides in favour of it.
"I should explain just what Mameha meant by 'older sister', even though at the time, I hardly knew much about it myself. By the time a girl is finally ready to make her debut as an apprentice, she needs to have established a relationship with a more experienced geisha. -- She {the older sister} does a great deal more than just making sure her younger sister learns the proper way to blend embarrassment-- She must also make sure her younger sister attracts the notice of people she'll need to know." - (Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha, pg.128-129).
You can also notice an apparent contrast in Sayuri's character once she has become a geisha. Sayuri's initial refusal of her call is what makes her later change of heart so shocking: she desires more than anything to become a geisha and to stay in the district of Gion. Although Sayuri does become a geisha as she wished, she ends up having to leave the district of Gion for five years during World War II, and on her return, notices much has changed in her "new world". It seems as though Sayuri's original "new world" is becoming another "normal world" that she will have to confront very soon. We all change through out our lives so it only makes sense that our ordinary worlds change and that we are always overcoming them.
Which leaves the question:Will Sayuri refuse the call to her new special world?
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I think the author does a good job of helping to establish societal context, so her decision to return and put up with the hardships she is enduring seems reasonable given her circumstances. Growing up in North America, however, I see her decision to return very disheartening - wishing she would escape and have the kind of freedom I often take for granted as a woman living in Canada.
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