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Analysis: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

“Nobody can tell you who you are if you remember wholeheartedly who you are, where you come from, and where you are going.”

If we could wipe all the bad memories from our past that reside in our brains and hearts, would we?

I asked myself this question right after watching this movie. This inquiry into myself, an individual that has a past that I am still exploring and learning about despite its darkness, has led me to a conclusion that is simple in statement, yet complex in explanation, in feeling. If I could wipe all the bad memories from my past that reside in my brain and heart, would I? The answer is no. And this movie elaborates on this further. 

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 film directed by Michel Gondry and written by Charlie Kaufman. The film is about a couple who decide to have their memories erased of each other after a devastating breakup without realizing the consequences. The philosophical questions of memory, identity, and connections are omnipresent throughout the film with side characters representing different aspects of the actual experience of memory. The main characters are Clementine and Joel, a couple who are complete opposites of each other in personality, in outlooks on life, and expression of life. We follow their journey of memory removal that becomes more than that; It turns into a journey of going into one’s own heart. The first theme I’d like to tackle is memory. From a more scientific standpoint, memory is the chemical process of storing information in the brain for future retrieval and to also inform present decisions and opinions based on past experiences. That is the more scientific way of looking at memory. As just another chemical process. However from a cultural perspective, memory is more than that. Memory is a part of an integral philosophy to many people. Taking from my own cultural experience, memory is a phenomenon that contributes to our understanding of the world, to experiencing the present, to understanding the past, and informing our future. “Sankofa” is an Akan word and symbol derived from the country of Ghana that depicts a bird looking back while its feet walk forward, symbolizing that the past informs our present and can help to shape our future. Ancestral veneration is found throughout many African and African-diasporic cosmosologies, including my own practice. I cannot know my future if I don’t look to my past, and my present cannot be joyful and hopeful if I can do the things that must be done to ensure that, hence the looking to the past. This is the framework I am coming from when analyzing this film as well as myself. In the film further towards the ending portions, Joel attempts to hide Clementine is a memory in a part of his brain that the doctor, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, and his assistant, Stan, cannot reach. By doing this he visits childhood memories. In doing this process, he confronts emotions that he hasn’t processed from that time period. Shame and potential abandonment. He does this all while trying to help Clementine but not realizing he is being vulnerable at the same time. He is sharing a part of himself with her in the process of trying to keep her in his memory. This is a full circle moment because what makes a memory so potent, in my opinion, is who was in it as well as the environment. Though Clementine did not meet Joel in their childhoods, witnessing these key moments in his development is also a form of vulnerability, a form of connecting with him on a deeper level. To tie their memories together, that memory isn’t just Joel’s memory it’s also Clemetine’s memory, the only difference being how they processed the information at the time. Same thing for Clementine. As human beings we all remember situations differently when compared to the people who also took part in the same experience with us. When they both erase each other from their memories, they are not only erasing each other at the surface level, they are erasing that person’s being. They are erasing the reasons why they love or hate that person which is important when it comes to our assessment of people and their actions. Alongside that, they are also erasing the parts of themselves they were when they were with each other which leads to a forgetting of self. For example, I was in a relationship that changed me for the worst when I was in it. I was not the person I knew myself to be. If I were to erase the relationship I’d also be erasing the version of myself I had become in that relationship. Some might say “Good! You didn’t like that version of yourself anyway.” The truth of the matter is I had to be that version of myself at that time because the circumstances that facilitated that birth showed me why I became that version of myself in the first place. It wasn’t just my ex’s destructive behavior that morphed me into this unrecognizable version of myself, it was also my past pains that were never addressed. These past pains also led to destructive behavior that manifested in the relationship and towards myself. If I were to erase that time of life, this version of myself that I’ve come to know and love today would not be here. Those same mistakes in the relationship would still be made only this time it would be with a different person. Towards the end of the film we see the acceptance of this conclusion after it is revealed to each other that they indeed know each other and were together at one point. The conclusion I came to about my own experience falls upon Clementine and Joel after they listen to the tapes recorded by the doctor that holds all the reasons why they loved each other and why the love stopped. They in the end accepted that, despite what the tapes revealed about the relationship and the versions of themselves they were in the relationship, they will still get together because being together meant they were gonna be with each other, both individually and collectively. In the end, wiping their memories still brought them together because it was their life path, choices, and fate that led them together.  The price of wiping their memories was too much because they not only lost each other, they lost themselves in the process. This perfectly flows into the other theme: identity.

Part 2 concerns Identity and will be posted next week! See you again!