Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Self

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 2005. Online image. Portfolio Center. 22 Feb 2010.

-Who am I?

Actually, I do not know who I am. I have my name, I have a nationality, I can come up with some words to describe myself; however, all of them are just the label which was additive. My parents gave me a name, Ayaka. Japanese is just a name that human created to describe the nation. Therefore, it is difficult to think what elements can explain who I am. Although I do not know how to tell who I am, I can tell that I am here now and I have a history, my memory. I think memory have an important role to indicate one's identity.

-What forces shape our sense of self?

It is hard to answer this question, but I think every external force can have an influence to us to shape our sense of self. Like I mentioned in the first question, especially, memory has an important role to define who I am. It is because the memory is a record of the personal history, and the experience gives people lessons that can influence the sense. Because of this, it is important to accept and remember all kinds of memory, even though it is painful.

-What is the central conflict of the film?

Of course Joel and Clementine had a conflict because of their different personality; however, I think the biggest conflict of the film was the conscious and unconscious. When Joel and Clementine met again after the memory surgery (that was the very beginning of the movie), Clementine said, "Have we met before?"

Although they wanted to erase the painful memory, I think they also wanted to keep the memory, like Joel said "Please let me keep this memory, just this one" when he was put into sleep to erase the memory. Therefore, I think the conflict was both internal and external.

-What is the significance of the Title?

I personally like this movie's title, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" because it strongly ties in to the theme. As previously stated, even though both Joel and Clementine erased their memory and became a "Spotless Mind," they both remembered each other unconsciously and attracted again. Although they lost their memory about each other, they had unconscious "Eternal" memory like the bright strong "Sunshine."