The Memory Police

by

Yoko Ogawa

The Memory Police Symbols

Snow

In The Memory Police, snow symbolizes emotional numbness to tragic events. On the unnamed island where the novel takes place, the mysterious phenomenon that causes objects to disappear from people’s memories starts off gradually…

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Birds

In The Memory Police, birds symbolize how memories of a lost loved one—even strong ones—vanish over time. The unnamed narrator’s father was an ornithologist, and when she was younger—before the “disappearance” of birds—she…

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