Posted: May 7th, 2015

Jonathan Nolan’s “Memento Mori”

Jonathan Nolan’s “Memento Mori”

Order Description

Discuss the ending of Jonathan Nolan’s “Memento Mori” Would you say that the story achieves narrative closure? Are there any unanswered questions left at the end of the story? Is it possible to determine the story’s “truth” (that is know beyond a reasonable what hapened and why?)

One thing you will probably want to think about is the way that the story you are writing on positions its reader. Every narative constructs a vantage point from which we both “physically” see the action ( think of the analogy of camera placement in film) and “emotionally” experience it ( narrative contains “cues or “suggestions” about how we should view the characters or the situation). Narratives also require certain kinds of readers: somre rely on a more passive reader, someone who is simply “shown” the plot and told what it means, others demand a more active reader, someone who must contribute in some way to production of meaning. What kind of reader is necessary for the story you are writing on?

You will want to work work through your list of narrative elements ( structure, character hierarchy, mode of address, closure, and so forth) first, and decide which specific ones are impoprtant for your discussion, which ones you think contribute most to the story’s closure or lack of it. This is will help you formulate the subtopics necessary for th introductory paragraph. Having subopics in place and following through on them is imperative. The easiest pitfall in writing about narrative is simply retelling the plot. A short summary of no more than one or two sentences may be necessary, but do not make the mistake of just reporducing the plot of the story.

Some Thoughts/notes/hints/ideas:

“Memento Mori” uses both a first(or is it second person?) third person narrative address–a kind of “split” or “double” narative, as well presenting its plot in a series of narrative fragments with no expository connections or explanations.

Remever to use embedded references–page numbers in paraenteses following quotations. Use the correct convention for giving titles and author’s names ( the titles of novels are underlined, and the titles of short stories are put in quotations marks/ auther’s complete is used first mention, thereafter only the last name is used.