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Suffering Anterograde Amnesia In Memento

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Memento tells an exhilarating psychological story of a man, Leonard Shelby, who suffers from short-term memory loss called anterograde amnesia. He suffers from this due to being hit on the head when defending his wife, who was attacked and raped in their house during the middle of the night. He kills one of the invaders during the attack. With the incapacity to form new memories, one of the last things Leonard remembers is seeing his wife, die. He then goes on what seems like an impossible quest devoted to find and kill the second attacker. Being unable to make new memories, Leonard develops a technique to help him remember what has happened post head trauma. He does this by using tattoos, polaroid pictures with added indications and hand-written …show more content…

The black and white scenes illustrate the story chronologically; whereas the scenes in color continue in reverse chronological order. Suffering anterograde amnesia, the death of his wife is a fresh, renewed wound to him, and where his reality picks up every day. Leonard Shelby is an insurance claim investigator, explains throughout the story he has a client, Sammy Jankis, who also suffered from anterograde amnesia as well. Leonard was allegedly assigned to determine whether his illness was covered by his insurance policy. After testing, Leonard concludes Sammy's condition was psychological; he was not covered for mental illness, and denied the claim. Leonard repeatedly tells himself the significant story of Sammy. The importance of the story of Sammy is made exceptionally clear, simply by the fact that Leonard has it tattooed on himself. Leonard explains how Mrs. Jankis, Sammy’s diabetic wife, met privately with him because she questioned if her husband’s condition was …show more content…

Throughout the movie Leonard has been used as a somewhat hit man to a degree. Both Teddy and Natalie, the film’s female fatale, manipulate Leonard to kill Natalie’s boyfriend Jimmy, a drug dealer who operated out of an inn and bar. Teddy took advantage Leonard, misleading him to believe Jimmy was “John G.” Teddy initiated a deceitful “drug deal” for $200,000, requesting Jimmy meet him. However, when Jimmy arrived, Leonard was waiting with the misperception that it was his wife’s murderer. He kills Jimmy, however, right before he dies, Jimmy whispers “Sammy” causing Leonard to realize something was not right. Natalie deceives Leonard by using him to pursue revenge on Teddy and betraying Leonard to believe he could not be trusted. Also, she implies that Dodd, a drug dealer associated with Jimmy, was threating her, fooling Leonard into offering himself to dispose of him. He listens to these requests in unknowing of his true actions. Towards the end of the film, Teddy even tells Leonard that there are innumerous “John G’s” in the world for him to kill, admitting to putting false perceptions in Leonard’s head of who the true, physical “John G” was. The misguided actualities personified by Teddy and Natalie, two people with whom Leonard held trust, displays the presence of crime and violence as social criticism, a thematic device of neo-noir film, through the betrayal of

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