Leonard Shelby as Films Protagonist - Memento - Essay Example

Some elements of the story are presented in the plot of the movie. These include a single problem facing the protagonist, comic relief, and getting the audience to believe what the protagonist is fighting for. In Memento, Leonard’s mind is fixed on one thing only: track down his wife’s killer and kill them. There is comic relief in the story when Leonard’s details, such as having been an insurance investigator, and the story of Sammy, who also suffered memory loss. The audience sympathizes with Leonard.

Leonard believes the second attacker’s name was John while the second name begins with “G”. He, therefore, embarks on an investigation to find John G. The plot of the film also details Leonard’s attempts to track down the second attacker with the name John G. The film develops in reverse sequence, showing the protagonist hot on the heels of a certain John G. He meets a man named Teddy whose full name turns out to be John Edward Gammell. Believing it is John G., he kills him. In the final black-and-white sequence, still in reverse, Leonard learns about another man, Jimmy Grantz, and is told that he is a “John G” (memento, n.p.). Leonard proceeds to kill him.

The filmmakers have adopted a complicated narrative technique to tell the story. They present the film in two parts: the black-and-white section and the color section. The black-and-white segment chronologically depicts Leonard as he hunts down his wife’s killer and ends when he kills Jimmy Grantz. The color segment, on the other hand, is presented in reverse. It begins with Leonard killing Teddy and works back in time to the moment Leonard discovered that he had killed the wrong man, Jimmy Grantz (Memento, n.p.). Consequently, the events in the film are not presented chronologically as the two segments are intertwined throughout the movie.

The film’s protagonist is Leonard Shelby. Leonard is hunting for his wife’s killer and the only clue he has is that the killer bears the name John and the second name begins with a “G”, who turns out to be Teddy. Teddy is, therefore, the antagonist in the movie. Other major characters in the movie include Teddy, Natalie, Jimmy, Dodd, and Sammy. Teddy is the antagonist in the film, but at first, he pretends to be Leonard’s friend. He cunningly sets Leonard on the wrong man. Eventually, fate catches up with him and Leonard discovers him and kills him.

Natalie is a bartender who resents Leonard because he has killed her boyfriend, Jimmy. However, she turns out to be helpful as she sets Leonard on track to finding the real killer of his wife. She reveals Teddy’s full name as John Edward Gammell. The pieces of the puzzle fall into place for Leonard as he can discover that Teddy is John G. Sammy is a flat character who is not well-developed. He is presented as another person suffering from memory loss just like Leonard. He only exists as a memory for Leonard. Dodd is only driven out of town by Leonard. There is also Sammy’s wife, who takes her life by intake of insulin. Read More