The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa is a novel concerned with forgetting and disappearances. It is also a book that describes the terrible connections between an authoritarian regime’s actions and the lives of the citizens they police. At the novel’s conclusion, the narrator, in a conversation with R. says:
“It doesn’t matter what I say, the disappearances will continue. There’s no escape. I wonder what will be next. Ears? Throat? Eyebrows? My other arm or leg? Or maybe my spine? And then what will be left? Or will nothing be left at all? I suppose that’s it, every last bit of me will disappear.”
Please respond to the following question referencing the book as well as other texts, historical precedents, and contemporary events and to provide evidence and analysis in the form of close reads from the novel.
At the conclusion of The Memory Police, why does the narrator disappear?
