Unreliable Memory in Memento

Unreliable Memory in Memento Thesis The unique narration mental synthesis of the film and the spark advance role, Leonard Shelby in Memento prove that fund is perfidious. . In William Goldings Lord of the Flies, Samneric saw something moving, something large, which in reality was the dead body of a parachutist. well(p) now in the darkness and out of fear, in Samnerics memory board, the parachutist became a beast with leathery wings, teeth, and claws. He even claimed that he saw it slinking behind the trees. In this case, Samnerics memory were mastered by his personal feelings fear.Thus memory is unreliable, as it can be manipulated by personal feelings. Similarly, the leading role of Memento, Leonard Shelbys memory is also manipulated by his personal feelings. Leonard distorts his memory due to his desire to contract and kill the unrivaled and only murderer of his wife. In the following, I am going to prove memory is unreliable through the unique narrative structure and L eonard Shelby, the leading role of the film. Memento, the report card features a man c all tolded Leonard Shelby, who has anterograde memory loss, a disorder that caused his brain to be unable to store new memories.From Leonards memory, the disorder was a result from a concession caused by the rapist murderer of his wife. From then on, Leonards life is all about finding the i and only murderer of his wife and get him killed in order to take revenge. Firstly, it is the unique narrative structure. The films events unfold in two separate, alternate narratives one in color, and the other in black-and-white. The black-and-white sections are told in chronological order, beginning by showing Leonard conversing with an anonymous caller in a motel room.Leonards actual investigation is shown in color sequences that are in reverse order. By the end of the film, when the two narratives converge, revealing the investigation and events that lead up to Leonards friend, Teddys death. The narr ative structure is literally a memory establish that the director of Memento, Christopher Nolan gives to the viewer. As each color sequence begins, the audience is unaware of the prior events, just like Leonard, giving the viewer a sense of his confusion.With the structure arranged in this alternating and reverse way, the confused viewer would be lost, in a way that they have no clue where the story is heading. At the end of the film, which chronologically is the first sequence, would only leave the viewer more question marks. Therefore, the narrative structure of the film, which is also the memory test, proves human memory is unreliable. For relying only on memory, the viewer can non group all the puzzles the reverse chronological scenes together and have a full understanding of the events.Confusion is brought on by unreliable memories. As time goes, memory fades, based on this principle that everyone knows and even experiences, Nolan first gives this memory test to let the vi ewer a firsthand experience that memory is unreliable. Zigzagging through the two separate and yet related narratives, Nolan brings out memory is unreliable non only due to physical reasons, but also mental ones. The black-and-white sequence is indeed the narration of Leonard, a former insurance investigator, verbalise the story of one of his claimants, Sammy Jankis before his injury.Jankis, just like Leonard, appeared to have anterograde amnesia after a car accident. Leonard explains how Jankiss diabetic wife tested Jankis to pick up if he really had a memory disorder or just faking to claim disability insurance, by repeatedly requesting insulin injections from him. She is desperately hoping that Sammy did non have a memory disorder and would remember the previous injection. As a result, she died from an insulin overdose from Jankis. While the viewer is puzzling why Leonard remembers Jankis so vividly, Nolan reveals a parallel story of Leonard.Because of Leonards condition and his denial of possibly killing his wife by overdosing her with insulin, he might have made up a different scenario in his mind. He constructed a rape-murder scenario for his wifes death. He alienated his killing his wife by inventing Sammy Jankis, memorizing it as a separate event. He altered his memory to change magnitude his guilt. At the end of the film, Leonard confronts his memory and says,Do I lie to myself to be happy? yes, I will. This narration conveys that emory can be full of flaws, it can be distorted by personal feelings, it can be changed by ones desire, that memory can be no more than a tool of self-deception. Secondly, through the leading role of Memento, Leonard Shelbys verbal expression, condition, tattoos and flashbacks, Nolan proves to the viewer that memory is unreliable. Leonards lines point directly at memory is unreliable. In the film Leonard said, Memorys not that perfect. Its not even that good. , Memory can change the shape of a room it can change the c olor of a car. And memories can be distorted.Theyre just an interpretation, theyre not a record, and theyre irrelevant when you have the facts. Leonard stresses that memory is not good. Through Leonards lines, the film emphasizes that, memory is unreliable because theyre just an interpretation. Then moving on to Leonards condition, anterograde amnesia is the significant feature of Leonard and it is also the heart of the film. Since Leonard has this disorder that he cannot form new memories, everything fades, memory is definitely unreliable for him. For the viewer, be put into Leonards shoes, unknown to the preceding events, memory is unreliable as well.Again, Leonards memory problem has directly pointed at memory is unreliable. Leonards tattoos is also a significant feature of Leonard. In order to find his wifes murderer, Leonard relies on notes and annotated Polaroid pictures. But for vital information which he believes would lead him to the murderer, he tattoos that piece of inf ormation on his body quite of writing on a piece of paper because of his inability to form new memories. In one scene, Leonard gets a tattoo of the murderers license plate emergence, relying on his memory, he has mistaken an I for a 1.Now this clue has really changed because of his unreliable memory. It tells us not to trust Leonards believe-to-be-true facts, memory can indeed manipulate everything. As Leonard puts it, Memory can change the shape of a room it can change the color of a car Theyre just an interpretation, theyre not a record. Also, accord to Leonards tattoo, the name of the murderer is bathroom G. At the beginning of the film, which chronologically is the last sequence, Leonard does succeed and kill one John Edward Gammell, whose nickname is Teddy.Leonard says he would remember he had killed that one and only murderer even with his condition, because that excitement of revenge would remain. However, at the end of the film (which should be the beginning of the stor y), reveals that Teddy is just one of the few John G. s that Leonard has killed. It turns out after Leonard has killed a John G, he copies Teddys license plate number and gets it tattooed on his body annotating that is the license plate number of the murderer, making Teddy(John Edward Gammell) his John G, for the sake of his meaning of survival.Memory can manipulate, and at the same time, be manipulated. Leonard, in order to fulfill his goal and his desire of taking revenge, he lets his memory be manipulated by his personal feelings, and keeps on killing more and more John G. s. Furthermore, there are a few of Leonards flashbacks throughout the film, one is preparing an insulin injection, one is his staying in a sanatorium (instead of Sammy Jankis does after he accidently killed his wife).The more significant flashback is of Leonards wife waking up, opening her eyes, but if it is played backwards, it is very often like his wife is going into a coma. Leonard also recalls the scene t hat his wife crying out, Ouch when he executes the insulin shot. However, the fact is Leonard manufactured Sammy Jankis in order to deny being the murderer of his wife. So, when he recalls that injecting scene from memory, administrating insulin has become pinching his wifes thigh. There are actually quite a lot of Leonards flashbacks giving proof that Leonard himself is the murderer of his wife, but it is clearly that Leonard wants to lessen his sense of guilt, so he distorts his memory, it shows that memory can in fact be changed to satisfy oneself, memory can be reconstructed. To conclude, He took past mymemory. He destroyed my ability to live. Just like Leonard, humans in general acknowledge memory is one of the abilities that help us to live, however it is not a must that this ability is reliable, in fact memory practically cannot be trusted.From Mementos unique narrative structure, a genuine memory test definitely created a certain degree of confusion to the viewer. It is impossible for humans to have everything well organized merely by memory. The facts in ones memory can be rebuilt, as Leonard says,Do I lie to myself to be happy? yes, I will. Memory can easily be manipulated by ones personal feelings. In Leonards case, his memory is manipulated by his guilt he uses his memory as a tool to spoil the fact that he killed his wife because of his lack-of-short-term memory disorder.Leonards lines, physical problem, tattoos and his flashbacks all are important proofs of Leonard is the murderer of his own wife, which Leonard does not want to admit. From the beginning, his true motive of finding that rapist murderer is only for his own satisfaction, finding his goal of life, and more importantly, for lessening his guilt. That is why being unknown that he does it on purpose or unintentionally Leonard distorts his memory and reconstructs it and in the film.Now the distorted memory became reality for Leonard, and the facts change according to his reconstr uction. We can see that memory can also manipulate at the same time, memories can be distorted. Theyre just an interpretation, theyre not an record. The unique narrative structure and Leonard Shelby, the leading role of Memento, have proved that memory is no more than an interpretation after all. For memory can be distorted and manipulated out of ones own satisfaction and desire. Memory is not facts, it cannot always be trusted. Memory is unreliable both physically and mentally.