
“The Persistence of Memory”’ is a widely recognized painting.  This painting’s author is Salvador Dali, a very intriguing man.  He looks like a regular man for the most part, but his mustache seems very unnatural and bizarre.  Naturally, someone this different, produces work that is like himself, peculiar.  This painting looks realistic at a glance.  However, “The Persistence of Memory” is undeniably an example of surrealism.  At a closer glance, one can see this painting is not truly realistic.  There are several unnatural shifts between terrains and several unclassifiable objects within the scene depicted.  These shifts and strange objects support the possibility of the theme being, memory tends to change itself and a person over time.

Much like memory, the scene seems to shift as the viewer gazes into the painting.  Basically, the scene shown in the painting seems to change with time to the viewer. At first, the scene it depicts is familiar to its viewer.  It is familiar in the sense that it resembles a desert, a beach, a wasteland, or even a living room, depending on the viewer and his perception.  Dali seems to create this effect by using shading and ambiguous objects.  For example, evidence of the presence of a living room in the landscape is existent in the bottom left section of the foreground.  Here there are a pair of ambiguous objects.  One appears to be a jewelry organizer and the other seems to be some sort of jewel encrusted fragrance bottle.  Also, there is something a little to the right of this area that resembles a piece of furniture covered by a blanket or tarp.  Evidence of a beach is mainly found towards the top in the background around what appears to be water.  However, evidence of the scene containing a wasteland overlaps with evidence of a beach environment.  The browns, whites, and blues are blended and transitioned so subtly in the background that it is difficult for the reader to suggest that the scene is either only a beach or only a wasteland.  

This area could represent the nostalgic properties certain memories have.  No matter how bad a time in one’s life is, in the future this person will likely look back on parts of this period fondly.  An example of this can be someone looking back on the warm summers of their old summer home in the south while they are enduring a winter in a new much colder home in the north.  Basically, human memory consistently tends romanticize older memories.  Another area where this idea may be present is in the bottom left part of the foreground on top of the desk-like structure.  Here we find what resembles a jewel encrusted bottle of perfume.  Even more, when you look closely there appears to be an imprint of a pattern that resembles that of a sand dollar.  This also relates back to the possibility of a beach being present in the painting.  There is a plethora of interpretations that can be made. 

Everything in this piece seems to go together and be at war at the same time. This harmonious battle is accomplished by the painting’s ambiguity.  Nothing in Dali’s painting can be justly claimed to be one thing that represents one idea.  By containing objects and features that can be interpreted as more than one thing, Dali causes different viewers to come to different conclusions.  In addition to creating different interpretations in different viewers, this can form different interpretations of the same thing within the mind of the same spectator.  Basically, someone looking at the painting is able to draw more than one conclusion from the same part of the painting. 

An example of this could be a viewer’s interpretation of the clocks.  One interpretation could be, the author is portraying how old memories can affect a person. The several clocks within the scene support this claims.  They appear to be melting or possibly just worn out.  This appearance of being worn out can be interpreted as how the artist feels about time.  He may be saying that as time passes memories can wreak havoc on a person’s psyche.  In other words, negative experiences in life can damage the mind of a person throughout his or her life.  For example, experiencing multiple deaths throughout a life time can gradually wear a person down to the point where they are worn out much like the clocks in the painting.  On the other hand, these clocks can also represent how the mind tends to mold memories.   In other words, memories naturally alter and transform themselves as time passes.  By altering reality, Dali guides his audiences’ attention to the several surreal elements within his piece.

One of these areas is present above the desk-like structure in the bottom left corner of the foreground.  Just above this structure is a thin rectangular prism.  Even more, this prism appears to be somewhat of a mirror or reflection pool.  Either way, it seems that the author is making commentary on how the mind may reflect on old memories.  In other words, the mind continuously brings old memories into your thoughts.  During which you tend to reflect upon your life and how you have changed over time.  The “Persistence of Memory” Dali may be referring to in this piece is how the mind tends to think about certain things even though they are far behind you.  Persistence in memory can be defined as the return of old recollections that cause you to experience nostalgia, reflect upon your yourself and decision you have made, or even all of these things at once.