Sayuri’s struggle of life as a Geisha in Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha: A Feminist Literary Criticism

ABSTRACT

This study investigates Sayuri’s struggle of life as a geisha in Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha (a feminist literary criticism). The objectives of the study are to know the Sayuri’s struggle of life as a geisha and the results of Sayuri’s struggle of life as a geisha in the novel. This study uses literary criticism as research design to conduct the research, including description, analysis and the interpretation of literary work. The data are collected from words, sentences, paragraphs, and dialogs within the novel which show Sayuri’s struggle of life and the results of her struggle those are analyzed by using feminist literary criticism.

The results of this study show that the struggles of Sayuri as geisha in Memoirs of a Geisha, the researcher could find struggle in economy which makes her control her own fate, education which also develop her abilities and intellectual; this also proves that woman is active not passive and in transform the society which makes her useful for others by solving the societies’ problems and give her position in the society. And also, the struggles has given some results on her that covers many aspects, those she gets her economic independence which has authority and make her life run better economically, she also gets her social independence which makes her social life better than before she becomes a geisha. And also, it makes easy for her to socialize and makes her exist in everywhere. All her struggle brings her life in better condition by being a geisha.