Memoirs of a Geisha; Chapters 6-10

These chapters made me soo angry. I agreed with mother and grandmother at first when they said they could tell how clever Chiyo was, but these chapters made me question that she was even in the slightest bit intelligent. Why in the world would she believe anything that Hatsumomo told her? All she ever does is manipulate Chiyo into getting what she wants and getting Chiyo beaten or in trouble or more in debt. I was surprised, though, when Hatsumomo wasn't lying about where Satsu was. Hatsumomo really does want Chiyo out of the okiya, though. Whenever Chiyo left to find Satsu, I was so nervous for her. She was still just a little girl. Weren't the streets a dangerous place for a pretty little girl? Also she was in the bad part of town going to a whore house, I really don't know how thats safe. When she found Satsu and discovered the sort of conditions she was in, I was sad for Satsu. Satsu never seemed to be the brightest and did enjoy being a little scandalous back in their home town, but there is no way that she deserved to be ripped from her family and made into a whore. I was sort of excited when they decided to run away, but I obviously knew that it wouldn't work out for Chiyo because otherwise the rest of the book wouldn't really exist. The fact that I knew their plan wouldn't work made me sort of sick to my stomach. I definitely thought that Chiyo being the "clever" girl she was would have a better escape plan than crawling over the roof. She didn't even really inspect the roof before she planned the escape, either, so she just ended up exploring it in the dark. She was horribly clumsy about it, also. I realize that roofs aren't exactly the easiest thing to climb on, but seriously? She fell off and broke her arm. She didn't even make it to the other side or anything. And of course now that she fell back into the okiya with a broken arm she was going to get in even more trouble and beaten like crazy by auntie or maybe mother. As if her being beaten with wet bamboo isn't bad enough, mother takes away Chiyo's schooling. Basically all Chiyo can do now is chores and she obviously will never be able to pay off all of her debts that way. Especially since Hatsumomo also framed her for stealing that brooch and money all because Chiyo caught her with a boy. I have no idea why Chiyo didn't see that one coming, but she is only a village girl and still mostly scared to death. When auntie read the letter that Chiyo's parents both died I felt even worse for her. As if it wasn't bad enough that she had been sold away to become a geisha to an okiya with the meanest girl on the face of the planet, now the man who sold her writes her a letter to tell her of her parents death. Her father must have been older than I thought because her parents seemed to die pretty close together..or maybe they didn't and he just didn't write the letter until Chiyo's father died. I think its very strange that as soon as Chiyo meets the Chairman she is basically in love with him. She's still very young and he treats her like a little child, but she wants to be a geisha by his side. He's quite a bit older than her and its just strange to me that she would think that about him. I suppose at least meeting the Chairman has knocked a bit of sense into her. She finally sees that she's basically stuck at the okiya, no matter how much she hates it, so she had better just get used to it and work as hard as she can to get her geisha lessons back and become successful. Becoming a successful geisha is Chiyo's only shot of living any type of good life. I still find it so strange that the age difference between the two of them doesn't bother Chiyo. Once again, such a difference in culture. It is pretty cute, though, that Chiyo keeps his hankerchief. She doesn't really have anyone in her life so I guess it is her way of thinking she's doing something for someone.