Broken Heart or Erased Memories?
... In another scene, when Joel is on the train coming back from Montauk, Clementine comes up to him and asks if she knows Joel. He, of course, says he doesn’t think so. Joel acts very shy and nervous while Clementine is very confident and friendly. After he says no, it’s as if he’s tries to keep his distance from her but she keeps on talking to him. It’s funny because Joel was the one who was almost “stalking” her before they got on the train. Even though Clementine, in a later scene, tells Joel not to start stalking her. He was intrigued by her. This scene suggests that they probably knew each other in a previous life, although Joel and Clementine don’t quite realize that they do because they both had their minds erased of each other. They introduce each other on the train. Clementine tells Joel not to make fun of her name by singing the song or anything. He says that he doesn’t know what song she’s talking about. He can’t remember the song because his memory was being erased while he was being a little kid and his mother was singing that song to him. Although we learn later in the film that he did indeed make fun of her name because this memory has already been relived, on the beach when they actually first meet each other. Page 3 Memories of people’s childhood reflect on their personalities, how they treat people and their demeanor. In one scene, the film easily shows why Clementine is so insecure and self-conscience about herself. She tells Joel about her childhood and how she was lonely as a kid. She then goes on to talk about her dolls and how she would always yell at them to be pretty not ugly. This shows that she lacked attention as a child. Therefore as a grown woman, she is very loud and crazy, as if she is trying to draw attention to herself. She really wants people to like her because, it seems, when she was a child she was deprived of that liking-ness. This also creates problems between her and Joel suggesting the reasons that they fight all the time. She is selfish and wants all of the attention to herself. An example of this concept is her going out all the time, alone, and coming home so drunk that she is belligerent and yells at Joel. Also she confronts him about having a baby in public and becomes so angry about the situation because Joel doesn’t want to talk about it in public. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself. This problem is the doom of the relationship because she will never change who or how she is due to her childhood memories. There is also a scene where Patrick is trying to show his love for her. Although he took all of Joel’s stuff that reminded Joel of her, Patrick still used them to try and seduce Clementine himself. She is so confused and doesn’t know what is going on that she flips out and goes crazy yelling at Patrick. She tells him she wants to crawl out of her skin and she doesn’t feel like herself. Patrick then uses the words and presents that Joel used to try and calm her down. This shows the viewers what a bad move that was on his part because that just makes her flip out even more because of her memories of Joel. Although not to try and defend Patrick, she still is showing her selfish-ness and Page 4 the nasty part of her personality that causes the problems in her relationships in the first place. Her childhood past and memories have made her the person she is today and that is the main problem in the relationship between her and Joel. Joel deals with Clementine’s personality because he is afraid to confront her. His childhood memories have also made him the person that he is today. He was so humiliated and picked on by bullies that he gives in easily to people as an adult. When his memory is being erased and Clementine realizes that he needs to take her to a memory that she’s not in by telling Joel to “hide me in your humiliation.” (Eternal Sunshine) Therefore, he takes her back to his childhood. One scene shows a group of k...