Construct With Memory

Emotional memories have the interesting capacity to focus a high beam on who we think we are, or want to be, and who we really are down deep.

As the four friends, in the movie Shag, try on different personas and test run different actions on their escapade weekend, they are more than a little surprised to find out what really matters. Melaina, the preacher’s daughter, can’t wait to toss scruples, rules and clothes out the window to adopt a sultry presence ready for action. But when one heated Romeo takes her seriously she realizes just where her actions are taking her and instinctively fights back. “It against my religion,” she says desperately and recognizes that she actually means it.

However, young engaged socialite, Carson begins acting with ultra moral and rigid convictions, and then slides steadily into a physical relationship with a boy she just met. “I guess I was always bad inside,” she tells her friends, “but I didn’t know it.” In reality, she decided to act on her own feelings instead of what others expected and had dictated she act. And was more that a little startled at the degree of her rebellion.

When Chip is challenged as to his behavior towards Caroline, he immediately asserts his honor by declaring that he is a southern gentleman. And he is such a gentleman that Caroline thinks he only sees her as overweight and just friend material, because from her emotional memory that is the only way boys see her.

Luanne, though, attempts to stay on track and keep everyone else on track. She upholds the social status she believes in as a senator’s daughter and doesn’t veer away. At the same time she acts as a true friend, by saving Melaina, protecting Carson and encouraging Caroline.

In just a few days these four young women discover, through memory, themselves at the very core of their being, before they head into the next stage of their lives. Their last fling of freedom had deeper roots than they could have imagined.

Journal Prompt: Put your character in a situation where he thinks he is getting exactly the treatment he wants and deserves, but finds his heart is rebelling against it. Why? What memories are reminding him of who he really is?

Share:  What surprised your hero?