What does Leonard Shelby believe about how his wife died? What really happened? How do we know? Can we be sure? Can any of the characters in the film be trusted? Explain your answers.
2) What is the Storehouse Theory of Memory? How does the film challenge this theory?
3) One criticism of the Memory Theory of personal identity that is implicit in the film is that people often distort or fabricate their memories. Carefully explain and develop this criticism citing details from the film to illustrate it.
4) Leonard suffers amnesia after an attack on he and his wife in their home. After the attack he retains his long-term memories but cannot form any new memories. Is each instant of Leonard after his brain injury the same person as Leonard before the brain injury? How about the instants themselves? Are they parts of the same person? What would the memory theory say about this? How about the bodily identity theory? What do you think?
5) One of the central themes of the film is self-deception. The other main characters in the film attempt to deceive Lenny but he also deceives himself. We learn about this self-deception at the end of the movie. How does he deceive himself and why? What does the self-deception tell us about the Memory Theory of personal identity?
6) Another implicit criticism of the Memory Theory in Memento can be found in the following quotation from a reviewer of the film. Carefully explain this criticism:
“When comparing the Leonard of the past with the present Leonard stark contrasts can be seen. He went from being a button down, neatly parted insurance investigator, to an unkempt, loosely dressed vigilante. He cannot see through his own lies. Leonard is able to write himself a note knowing it is a lie and read it later believing it as absolute truth. Since he is dependent on his ‘facts’ he writes down, he acts upon these lies without any conflict of conscience.”
7) Leonard says: “We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I’m no different.” What does this mean? What does this say about how each of us determines his/her identity as a person over time? Is Leonard right?