Describe symbolism in Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

In Chapter Ten, Chiyo realizes after a time that for her whole life at the Nitta okiya she had been living in two worlds. In one world, she was a maid at the okiya, but in the other, she fully expected one day to go home again. This division kept her from going forward with either imagined life. Like the moth she had entombed beneath the house so many months before, the past was gone and would never be resurrected. A sign, Chiyo feels sure will be given her, and as it turns out, the entire day is symbolic in one way or another. At every turn, she is constantly reminded of the flow of time and of the current of life.