In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind emphasizes the importance of memory and how memories shape a person's identity. Stories such as Proust's “In Search of Lost Time” and a Presidential Council on Bioethics report titled “Beyond Therapy” support the claims made in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) meet on a train to Montauk, New York, where they are immediately attracted to each other. They don't know it at the time, but Joel and Clementine had a two-year relationship that ended in heartbreak. Clementine, who is naturally spontaneous, hires a company called Lacuna Inc., which specializes in erasing people's memories. When Joel discovers that Clementine has erased him from her memories and has no idea who he is, he decides to do the same to her. The trial takes place while you sleep and most of the film is based in Joel's mind. We see his memories erased one after another, from the end of the relationship to the beginning. Once Joel has a good memory with Clementine, he finds he doesn't want to continue the procedure, but there's no stopping her. Throughout the film he tries to retain at least one memory of her, but he fails. Clementine's last memory tells Joel to "Meet me in Montauk" (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). In a separate story arc Patrick, one of Lacuna's technicians, dates Clementine and uses Joel's memories and words to seduce her. Mary, another Lacuna employee, discovers that she too has had her memories of a relationship with Dr. Howard Mierzwiak erased. This leads Mary to send all of the company's records to clients. When… middle of paper… While there may be some benefits to wiping a person's memory, it is ultimately wrong. Without their memories a person does not have the possibility to form their identity and without being able to learn from their mistakes, they will continue to be made. Being an adult with a clean slate isn't fair, and you can't experience good things without also experiencing bad things. Works Cited Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Director Michel Gondry. Perf. Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet. Focus Features, 2004. DVD.Proust, Marcel. In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way, Vol. 1. Trans. CK Scott-Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin. Ed. DJ Enright. New York: The Modern Library, 2003. Print.United States. Presidential Council on Bioethics. Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness: A Report of the Presidential Council on Bioethics. New York: Dana Press, 2003. Print.