The Memory Police

The heart is both a symbol—for emotions, emotional intelligence, and empathy—and a motif that runs throughout the novel. Hearts serve as a way to gauge the impact of the disappearances on the islanders. Those who have the ability to remember everything seem to have larger hearts. R describes a heart as having “no shape, no limits. That’s why you can put almost any kind of thing in it, why it can hold so much. It’s much like your memory, in that sense” (81). He not only remembers an excessive amount but loves an excessive amount (for example, carrying on an extramarital affair and loving the writer alongside her writing).

However, those who forget the things that the Memory Police decrees as disappeared feel and appear as if their hearts are “frozen” (98) or “decaying” (146). The associations built up around objects, animals, plants, and even body parts are part of emotional intelligence; memory is key to establishing and developing links between people, especially with loved ones who have died. R tries to relink memories with forgotten objects—to “thaw” or “move” the narrator and the old man—but the attempts are “futile” in many cases (228). He insists that the Memory Police and citizens “may have burned the novels, but [the narrator’s] heart did not disappear” (231), and until the very end, he tries to warm her heart.