The following is the introduction from our The Memory Police Study Companion, available on the resources page of our website.
“Trucks from the town hall come every Monday and Thursday to collect the snow. They dump it into the sea at the harbour near the old man’s boat. It gets terribly dirty and sad on the way, and you can hear the sound when it gets sucked into the water, as though the sea were swallowing it down its enormous throat. (p110)
In a novel where so many things are lost, Ogawa exhibits how such things vanish in a range of different ways. The protagonist’s fight to remember, along with her acceptance of things that will one day be forgotten, evokes many questions about the inevitability of loss and how people come to terms with it. Is something worth experiencing if it will one day be forgotten? Is it healthy to remember every detail of our lives and cling to them in a search for meaning?
The disappearance of items and less tangible things are shown to be jarring, but also subtle in how they slip from the people’s conscious thoughts. Like snow in the sea, many of the things that have been taken from people are quickly absorbed and forgotten by the power of the phenomenon that plagues them.
Did you notice?
“I suspect it melts almost immediately,” R said. “Melts and mixes with the salt water, and then onto the fishes and the seaweed.”
Ogawa alludes to things dissolving, melting or slowly being taken over by a larger entity at many different points throughout her novel. Links can be made between the manner in which memories and experiences and understanding gradually disappear from one’s life and how this becomes a natural occurrence, much like snow melting into the ocean, steam and smoke merging into the clouds or even the ramune sweet dissolving on the tongue.
Further to the experiences of the narrator, the control of The Memory Police is so great that events such as the taking of the Inui family are described as them having “simply vanished, as though they had melted into thin air.”
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Ogawa examines the fear of forgetting one’s past through the protagonist as she feels herself “on the verge of being drawn into [the] terrible depth” of emptiness. Despite her best efforts, memories of her parents are lost and physical reminders, the “traces” of her mother and father, are gradually taken from her. To lose such things is described by Ogawa as “absences and holes” in one’s life. Further to the fear of forgetting those who came before us, Ogawa also examines the fear of being forgotten, unable to leave a legacy that may provide meaning to our own existence.
“It’s subtle but it seems to be speeding up, and we have to watch out. If it goes on like this and we can’t compensate for the things that get lost, the island will soon be nothing but absences and holes, and when it’s completely hollowed out, we’ll all disappear without a trace. Don’t you ever feel that way?” (p53)
The narrator’s fears are offset against the hope of R and the acceptance of the old man as they support her throughout the disappearances. Having lost his wife and his means to make a living, the old man is able to adapt and cope with such losses through acceptance of his own powerlessness. There are attempts to find beauty and joy in what he may be missing or have forgotten, such as his ritual of playing the music box each day, but he outwardly comments on the inevitability of loss and the need to adapt in order to best cope with what has been taken from him.
From his unique standpoint of immunity from what is ‘disappeared’, R is able to expose the tragedy of what is done to the people of the island through his ability to find such joy in the objects that others have forgotten. He clings to memories of the past and takes great effort in ensuring that the narrator does all she can to preserve her memory and her voice. Just as there are remnants or ruins of things taken and forgotten, R pleads with the protagonist to remember that “even if the whole island disappears, this room will still be here.” However, such hope and tenacity in the face of loss merely outlines the power of memories and the links between objects, people and our understanding of our lives. The lack of connection to music, carnivals and novels serves as a reminder of the importance of such joys in one’s life and how the taking of such things from a person eventually whittles them away to nothing.
Ben Taylor - The English Lab
We have lots more to say about this text! If you’d like for Ben to speak to your students or to your teaching team, please contact hello@englishlab.com.au
Please also look around our website for further resources and services that can help your Year Twelve teachers and students get the best out of themselves. Our study guide (of which this post is an excerpt from) is available by clicking on the ‘Resources’ tab at the top of this page.
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