Do you agree with Leonard’s statement that we all need mirrors to remind us who we are? In the movie the mirrors were his notes, the photographs, and tattoos. What has he become by relying upon them? What would you become without your own mirrors?
Leonard seems to have to have an uncommon trust yet mistrust for people in Memento because of his lack of memory. He has to take everyone he encounters at their word or the word of what he has written on a photograph, the tattoos on his body, or notes he has written on paper. Because of living his life this way he has no choice but to take whatever he has put down in writing as fact without the shadow of a doubt that what he has written as false. This has put him in a precarious position because it leaves him open to being completely gullible in any situation because even though it may not be the truth he takes it as fact. He is at the mercy of himself and creating his own truths instead of real truth he lives on made up facts that he himself creates. We find out in the last scene of the movie that he killed the man that raped his wife over a year before, his wife survived the accident but was killed by Leonard by insulin overdose, and because he can’t remember he keeps chasing fake John G people and killing them because according to his notes to himself they are the person who killed his wife.
In a way I tend to agree with Leonard that we do need things to remind us of who we are. I think over the mirrors though we do need our memories because they do make us who we are in my opinion. I do believe that it is a very real and scary thought that people probably do create their own truths despite what actually may have happened and possibly lead them to do something horrific like killing people. It reminds me of the movie 50 first dates where the girl cannot remember what happened the day before and the man creates a video to show her what her life has been so that she can remember. The same idea that he the husband is creating her truths for her and while it is a nice idea that she will wake up every morning watch the video and fall in love with her husband again on the spot just seems a little far fetched. For me I do not think I would be a very good person if I did not have my mirrors(memories) and I say this because they do have influence on who I am they have given me goals and dreams to pursue. Without them I feel as though I would wake up every morning and feel a extreme sense of loneliness in the world because I think I would forever feel like I would always be skeptic of those around me I would have no baseline each day to make sound decisions based off of my memories. But at the same time even people with memories and the mirrors still create false truths because maybe they don’t want to see the truth or the memory just like Leonard does or they don’t like the reality they live in, and I believe this comes from the fact that people are imperfect including myself.
bryanhorsting 