4: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 1 - 50

"Francie overheard two men outside the group talking about her father. The short man said.
"I want you to hear this fellow talk about his wife and his kids. It's rich. He's a funny duck. He brings his wages home to his wife but keeps his tips for booze. He's got a funny arrangement at McGarrity's. He turns all his tips over to him and McGarrity supplies him with drinks. He don't know whether McGarrity ows him money or whether he owes McGarrity. The system must work out pretty good for him, though. He's always carrying a load." The men walked away.
There was a pain around Francie's heart but when she saw how the men standing around her father liked him, how they smiled and laughed at what he said and how eagerly they listened to him, the pain lessened. Those two men were exceptions. She knew that everyone loved her father.
Yes, everyone loved Johnny Nolan. He was a sweet singer of sweet songs. Since the beginning of time, everyone, especially the Irish, had loved and cared for the singer in their midst. His brother waiters really loved him. The men he worked for loved him. His wife and children loved him. He was still gay and young and handsome. His wife had not turned bitter against him and his children did not know that they were supposed to be ashamed of him." (32, Smith)

Though the book is not told from Francie's perspective and told in third person, Francie's thoughts shape the story. I consider Francie to be a narrator, even though technically she is not. In this passage, Smith uses the method of an unreliable narrator as well as dramatic irony to show Francie's naivity about her father. When Francie hears the two men talking about her father at the Union headquarters meeting, Francie's father's reputation is shaken slightly in her mind; but she still believes what she has always believed. Francies always believed her father to be her hero, to be the best man there is. "There was a pain around Francie's heart but when she saw how the men standing around her father liked him, how they smiled and laughed at what he said and how eagerly they listened to him, the pain lessened. Those two men were exceptions. She knew that everyone loved her father."

I believe in this passage, Smith is trying to show Francie's devotion as foreshadowing to her father letting her down and disappointing her. Dramatic irony is used when Smith tells the audience about Johnny Nolan being a shame to his family. "His wife had not turned bitter against him and his children did not know that they were supposed to be ashamed of him." Not only is Johnny Nolan, Francie's father, going to let down Francie, I predict that he will also let down all the other men that love him. I feel that Smith is going to show Francie getting let down by her father as Francie's transition into young adulthood. I also predict that Smith will begin to deepen Johnny Nolan as a character and show the darkness beneath his shiny, happy exterior.

3: Memoirs of a Geisha 309 - 487

"I had been plummeting towards the rocks, and the Chairman had stepped out to catch me. I was so overcome with relief, I couldn't even wipe away the tears that spilled from the corners of my eyes. His shape was a blur before me, but I could see him moving closer, and in a moment he'd gathered me up in his arms just as if I were a blanket. His lips went straight for the little triangle of flesh where the edges of my kimono came together at my throat. And when I felt his breath on my neck, and the sense of urgency with which he almost consumed me, I couldn't help thinking of a moment years earlier, when I'd stepped into the kitchen of the okiya and found one of the maids leaning over the sink, trying to cover up the ripe pear she held to her mouth, its juices running down onto her neck. She'd had such a craving for it, she'd said, and begged me not to tell Mother." (487, Golden)

The end of Memoirs of a Geisha is a happy ending. The geisha occupation loses all meaning during the Depression of the war in Japan and Sayuri and her peers are thrust into a difficult life of labor in factories or in Sayuri's case, dying threads. Sayuri is ultimately saved in the end by the long time object of her affection, the Chairman. In this quote, Sayuri and the Chairman are admitting their long repressed feelings to one another.
This ending ties up every aspect of Sayuri's life. "I had been plummeting towards the rocks, and the Chairman had stepped out to catch me. I was so overcome with relief, I couldn't even wipe away the tears that spilled from the corners of my eyes" refers to the beginning of the book when Sayuri was still Chiyo and lived in Yoshido. Sayuri lived in poverty and her life had began plummeting downwards when her mother died and her feeble, old, once widower of a father began to lose hope. Back then, Mr. Tanaka had sold her into the world of geishas, catching Sayuri from further despair. Now, Sayuri is falling into the depths of poverty once more, but the Chairman is catching her now.
"I couldn't help thinking of a moment years earlier, when I'd stepped into the kitchen of the okiya and found one of the maids leaning over the sink, trying to cover up the ripe pear she held to her mouth, its juices running down onto her neck. She'd had such a craving for it, she'd said, and begged me not to tell Mother." This quote represents Sayuri's life in the okiya (the geisha apprentice house), it is a tiny tidbit of her memory. Our memories are compilations of all the things that have occured in our lives. Also, this quote is one of the more powerful quotes in the book. It represents how repressed Sayuri's feelings for the Chairman were. It shows how grateful, relieved and estatic Sayuri and the Chairman are to indulge, finally in their guilty pleasures. I think anyone can relate to this quote and remember the pleasure that comes from finally getting something you have desired for so long.

2: Memoirs Of A Geisha 139 - 309

"When we stepped outside, I couldn't help stopping a moment to take in the sunset, which painted the sky behind the distant hills in rusts and pinks as striking as the loveliest kimono -- even more so, because no matter how magnificent a kimono is, your hands will never glow orange in its light. But in that sunset my hands seemed to have been dippped in some sort of indescence. I raised them up and gazed at them for a long moment.
"Mameha-san, look," I said to her, but she thought I was talking about the sunset and turned toward it with indifference. Uchida was standing frozen in the entryway with an expression of concentration on his face, combing one hand through a tuft of his gray hair. But he wasn't looking at the sunset at all. He was looking at me.
If you've ever seen Uchida Kosaburo's famous ink painting of a young woman in a kimono standing in a rapturous state and with her eyes aglow...well, from the very beginning he insisted the idea came from what he saw that afternoon. I've never really believed him. I can't imagine such a beautiful painting could really be based on just a girl staring foolishly at her hands in the sunset." (Golden, 259)

The passage above is farther into the storyline, where Chiyo has become an apprentice geisha of Mameha, a well known geisha in Gion. Chiyo has gone from shamed in the Geisha house to becoming renamed as Sayuri, an uprising, beautiful, geisha. Mameha works her connections brillantly and attempts to bring Chiyo to the top of the geisha world and defeat Hatsumomo, Mameha's foil who has a deep dislike and jealousy for Chiyo. "Mameha-san, look," I said to her, but she thought I was talking about the sunset and turned toward it with indifference. Uchida was standing frozen in the entryway with an expression of concentration on his face, combing one hand through a tuft of his gray hair. But he wasn't looking at the sunset at all. He was looking at me." Golden shows here how Japan and society perceives Sayuri, something that they stare at in wonderment and beauty, like a sunset.

"I've never really believed him. I can't imagine such a beautiful painting could really be based on just a girl staring foolishly at her hands in the sunset." Golden then reveals Sayuri's perspective of herself, and how she thinks she is still a simple girl and has yet to notice how beautiful she really is.

Golden is trying to convey Sayuri's feelings about being a beautiful geisha. All of Sayuri's life, she has been a small country girl always second best to her elder sister, worried about her family life, hidden behind the curtain. Now Sayuri is brought to center stage, men are noticing her striking gray eyes and Sayuri doesn't realize how much beauty she posses. She doesn't yet have the inflated head of some geishas and is confused as to why she is drawing so much attention from men in the new world that she has been brutally sold into. Sayuri's perspective of herself differs drastically from what the people of Gion (such as the painter, Uchida) see in her.