Memoirs of a Geisha by Aurthor Golden and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison are two thought provoking books with a unique style of writing. Memoirs of a Geisha has a beautiful poetic grammar which captures readers imagination and brings the story to life. Morrison on the other hand uses combined voices to give varied perspectives with out resorting to authorial intrusion or preaching. Memoirs Of A Geisha and the bluest eye both contain graphic realism combined with a dramatic flair, which is the key as to why both of these books have been a great success.
Memoirs of A Geisha is an exotic fable is about a young, innocent girl named Chiyo (9 years old in 1929) who lives in a poor fishing village in Yoroido with her older sister Satsu, her father and sick mother. Since Chiyos mother was going to die soon and her father couldnt do much to support their family, he sold his two daughters into slavery to a renowned geisha house. The bluest eyes in comparison has an extremely different story line due to the fact that the books are based around two completely different cultures.
However the themes and messages portrayed in these books are that of a similar nature told through different perspectives. The Bluest Eye is about a young girl named Pecola. Her innermost desire is to have the bluest eyes so that others will view her as pretty, in the end that desire is what finishes her, she believes that God gives her blue eyes causing her insanity. Both of these books use extensive description which is brought out through the characters and narrators.
The major characters in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison were Pecola Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, Claudia MacTeer, and Frieda MacTeer. Pecola Breedlove is very much like Sayuri from Memoirs of a Geisha. They both envy a person or image and try everything to become what they envy. Sayuri envies Hatsumomo as she is a beautiful well known geisha. However Hatsumomo despises Sayuri because she knows that Sayuri has the determination and beauty to become better than she is and Hatsumomo does everything in her way to stop Sayuri from becoming a Geisha.
Pecola however envies Shirly Temple because she has blue eyes and is beautiful. All of the parents adore Shirly temple because of the beauty she possesses. Both books involve hatred, selfishness, jealousy, love and betrayal. Memoirs of a Geisha has several different themes entwined in to the story, what I take to be the theme of this memoir is that a person can accomplish anything in life if they have set their mind on it and if they believe they can get there. Never giving up hope and always looking for a brighter day will eventually lead you to what youre out there searching for.
In Sayuris case, she was a slave who won the heart of a man and worked herself up to become one of the most successful geishas in all of Japan and to be united with the man she loved who motivated her all her life. I feel people should learn to be courageous from Sayuri and never give up dreaming because I believe that if you want something badly, you can transform your dreams into realties. This theme that is illustrated in Memoirs of a Geisha is most probably the opposite of what happens in The Bluest Eye.
This however is not saying that the theme of Memoirs Of A Geisha is wrong , just that changing yourself to become a different person In The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison makes a judgement on the human condition. Her opinion is that people depend on the world to find their self-value and their self-worth. This opinion has had a lot of truth in my life. I used to look at others to figure out how I should be feeling and what others saw of me I saw in myself. I believe that what Toni Morrison is saying about the human condition is true in some ways. It’s sad that we rely on others to see what we should see in ourselves.
Sayuri from Memoirs of a Geisha depended on men to find her self value and worth as did Pecola, who relied on god to give her blue eyes, so that she could transform and become something she is not. Toni Morrison is a very well known black writer who wrote The Bluest Eye purely from her own experiences, this is most likely why her book was so realistic. Golden rather writes from some one elses experiences. With an elderly ladies story and a good knowledge of Japanese history he was able to rewrite this ladies story in to a book that has beautiful language and is easy to read.
Memoirs of a geisha I feel would be suited to people who have a general interest in Japanese history or auto biographies The bluest eye on the other hand is very graphic at some times which may not be suitable to people who are not interested in violence etc. The book though gives you a real image of what happened and perhaps still happens in a poor black community. Racism and prejudice is really brought out in this book and leaves you thinking why god made us all different if it causes so much pain and hatred.
