Sullivan's Use Of Narrative In Memento

From the first moments of Christopher Nolan’s Memento, the spectator learns that their conventional narrative mechanics are non-existent within the film. The film begins at the narrative’s chronological end and the film begins in reverse. By manipulating the chronological ordering and narrative authority of Memento, Nolan is making a statement against a universality within a narrative and making the plot of Memento unreliable in the eyes of the spectator, encouraging them to creating meaning in the film from a subjective point of view. This counters the idea that plot directs the narrative. Nolan’s chronological manipulation causes the spectator to desire to put the narrative together like a puzzle, causing them to enjoy the narrative through
When the authority of a narrative is prioritized away from the plot and given to another aspect of the narrative, the narrative can be better analyzed in these prioritized areas that were restricted by plot’s authority in how a narrative creates meaning and how those meanings are represented.
In Memento, the achronological telling of the narrative causes the largest disruption amongst conventional plot mechanics. The unique construction of the narrative time in the film contradicts the desire for a climax that exists in conventional plots. Memento does not have a climax in the same vein as other narratives. For example, in a chronological telling of the narrative, the spectator would know the ways that the other characters manipulate Lenny to do things for their own gain earlier in the film. In Teddy’s case, we learn that Teddy is messing with Lenny at approximately the halfway point of the chronological narrative, but at the end of the film’s plot. Therefore, the narrative is ‘satisfied’ through Lenny
The spectator has the agency to create meaning within the plot at any point of witnessing the narrative unfold, even on subsequent viewings of the film, because the spectator’s interpretation acts as the only reliable information of the film because Lenny is an unreliable focalization to view the events of the narrative. Lenny’s inability to generate new memories prevents him from developing an understanding of the events that occur, but the spectator is able to apply the context of what will happen chronologically in addition to the black and white understand what occurs. Therefore, freeing the information of the narrative and requiring it to be understood and scrutinized and not just seen. Furthermore, the chronological black and white sequences are about used to provide information surrounding Lenny’s condition, but at the times when they are needed in the plot and not the narrative. Nolan created a plot that cannot exist in a vacuum, it does not follow the flow of time to generate an understanding of the narrative and requires the interactions of spectators to make sense of the film. Ricoeur's essay “Narrative Time” describes the importance of time within a narrative, “Following a story, correlatively, is understanding the successive actions, thoughts, and feelings insofar as they present a certain directedness” (Ricoeur 40). When applied to Memento’s story, Ricoeur’s