Many people come about numerous crossroads in their life and deciding whether to follow sentiment or reason creates many battles between their best interests. Throughout Sayuri's journey she struggles with an abundant number of decisions in which to pursue. Sometimes these decisions, though they may seem to take negative turns sometimes, happen for the better and happen to have a way of working themselves out.
There are two sides of Sayuri. Chiyo symbolizes her wants and the emotional side of her personality while Sayuri is sensible and logical. She is always torn between the two positions for the reason that although the Sayuri side of her tells her what is the right decision for her in terms of living and survival, the Chiyo side tells her to follow her heart. The decisions that she has made based on this has gotten her into trouble and others have given her a ray of light.
When Sayuri was young her sister had been taken away and her mother and father passed away all of which within a very short period of time. When she had been taken in by Mother, she had considered running away from the Gion. She had jumped off of the roof and broken her arm. Since she had broken her arm, she had been taken back into the Gion and made a servant to pay off her medical bills and therefore was taken in by Mameha, who was a well respected geisha, to become her apprentice.
If Sayuri had been successful in running away then most likely she would have ended up on the streets and been a peasant girl but instead as a result of her unsuccessful attempt she was forced into continue her presence in Gion. As a result of her stay, at first she followed her emotion by running away but when reason had gotten the best of her, she had no choice but to stay and avoid being thrown out on the streets. If she had been successful she would have never gained the knowledge and the training to become a successful geisha.