Intertextuality Blog

 Siddhartha and Memento are rather differing narratives. The previous sentence was an understatement. However, despite Leonard's dubious heroism and morality, the events of Memento parallel the Hero's Journey, except in an unorthodox order, and thus can be compared to those of Siddhartha. 

I had trouble understanding this plot structure even after it was explained to me..

    The question is whether Leonard can even be seen as the hero because his nature seems to be fixed and static due to his memory loss. If he doesn't attain more knowledge or change his worldview in any permanent way, is he really embarking on a Hero's Journey? When considering the reversed chronological order of Memento, it doesn't seem like Leonard's personality is particularly different from the beginning to the end of the film. How, then, can I actually follow the directions for this blog post and compare Siddhartha to "one of the film selections?" I'm glad you asked, hypothetical reader, because we have been approaching Memento the wrong way. I propose an interpretation of Memento wherein the audience is taking the Hero's Journey and undertaking a quest for understanding and enlightenment. The color sequences of Memento serve as the archetypal "guide" to the audience as the  audience eventually grows to sympathize with Leonard and attempt to find the identity of John G. They then undertake the "journey" of continuing to watch Memento to pursue the truth. 

                                            Memento is just a lazy person's journey to understanding

                                            a very unpleasant aspect of human nature.

    Teddy's confession at the end of Memento also serves as the enlightenment that is attained at the end of Siddhartha, though in Memento, the hero is receiving the enlightenment and not imparting it onto another. The truth that Teddy was using Leonard to kill criminals for him is a much more cynical and negative than the one that Siddhartha discovers with Vasudeva, but the audience probably walks out of the theater or the classroom with universalizable information such as a healthy respect for the value of memory and a much less positive view of human nature given that almost all of the characters and even Leonard himself manipulate use Leonard's memory loss to manipulate him and achieve their own selfish ends. 

It's lies & manipulation all the way down...

    A common objection to my interpretation that I anticipate is the argument that the audience cannot possibly be a hero in the same way that Siddhartha is, since they are passively watching Memento and have no actual power to influence the film's events. Google defines hero as an individual with "noble qualities," and the audience's motivation to discover the identity of a murderer certainly counts as noble. My response to the second argument is that the real "journey" is inside the audience's minds. The film simply serves as a sort of template or holy text that guided our journey. Like Siddhartha's journey to enlightenment, Memento's message is also personal and guided by the viewer's thoughts rather than a prepackaged and spoonfed truth that has to be experienced in order to be truly understood.