Reverse Evolution In Aimee Bender's The Rememberer

It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. In her surreal short story, “The Rememberer,” Aimee Bender reveals how her character Annie copes with the absence of her lover, Ben, with her use of magical-realism writing to describe the reverse evolution he experiences. The use of this particular literary device suggests that Bender created different perceptions of Ben for Annie to see in order to endure her broken heart. Annie is seeing Ben as various animals, interacting with her in different ways, which symbolizes the stages or phases she goes through to finally allow herself to let him go. Although, the love she has for Ben alters into many different forms before she finally gains the ability to accept his nonexistence.

The beginning of Ben’s reverse evolution is a metaphor for Ben leaving Annie. Annie is left confused and she states, “I don’t know what happened, only that one day he was my lover and the next he was some kind of ape.” (Bender 1) She begins the grieving process by seeing Ben as an ape instead of himself. Annie is not fully committed to letting him go, she “… wanted to meet the ape too, to take care of my lover like a son, a pet…” (Bender 2), but she soon realizes that she will never see human Ben again. This part of the story is where you can easily discern that human Ben ended the romantic relationship between himself and Annie. This flows well into the first animal Annie encounters which is most closely related to