Memo Paris Character Analysis in The Natural

An aloof, shallow woman intent on finding wealth, Memo is Pop Fisher’s niece and Hobbs’s main love interest. She is originally attached to Bump Baily, whose celebrity status Hobbs usurps when he is signed to the Knights. However, Memo agrees to date Hobbs after Bump’s death—and after Hobbs’s persistent urging. Memo is conniving and secretive, obsessed with becoming affluent, and she uses her sex appeal to hold power over Hobbs; she also has a tendency to prompt bad luck for the men who pursue her, including both Bump, who dies tragically, and Hobbs, who begins to perform poorly in games after meeting and pursuing her. Eventually, Memo sells out Hobbs by forcing him to agree to a shady deal with Judge Banner. Banner wants Hobbs to purposefully lose (“throw”) the last game of the season against the Pirates, thus demonstrating Pop Fisher’s weakness as a manager and allowing Banner to take over the team. By choosing a relationship with Memo, Hobbs initiates the chain of events that lead to his own downfall.

Memo Paris Quotes in The Natural

The The Natural quotes below are all either spoken by Memo Paris or refer to Memo Paris. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Ambition, Failure, and the American Dream Theme Icon

[A] door seemed to open in the mind and this naked redheaded lovely slid out of a momentary flash of light, and the room was dark again […] when she got into bed with him he almost cried out in pain as her icy hands and feet, in immediate embrace, slashed his hot body […] he found what he wanted and had it.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Memo Paris

Page Number and Citation: 59

Explanation and Analysis:

When Bump died Memo went wild with grief. Bump, Bump, she wailed, pounding on the wall […] In her mind she planted kisses all over the corpse and when she kissed his mouthless mouth blew back the breath of life, her womb stirring at the image of his restoration. Yet she saw down a dark corridor that he was laid out dead, gripping in his fingers the glowing ball he had caught.

Related Characters: Memo Paris, Bump Baily

Page Number and Citation: 80

Explanation and Analysis:

He felt contentment in moving. It rested him by cutting down the inside motion—that which got him nowhere, which was where he was and [Memo] was not, or where his ambitions were and he was chasing after. Sometimes he wished he had no ambitions—often wondered where they had come from in his life, because he remembered how satisfied he had been as a youngster, and that with the little he had—a dog, a stick, an aloneness he loved.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Memo Paris

Related Symbols: The Boy and His Dog

Page Number and Citation: 111

Explanation and Analysis:

He felt he had been running for ages, then this blurred black forest slid past him, and as he slowed down, each black tree followed a white, and then all the trees were lit in somber light till the moon burst forth through the leaves and the woods glowed. Out of it appeared this boy and his dog, and Roy in his heart whispered him a confidential message: watch out when you cross the road, kid.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Max Mercy, Memo Paris, Harriet Bird / The Woman

Related Symbols: The Boy and His Dog

Page Number and Citation: 122

Explanation and Analysis:

[Hobbs] woke in the locker room, stretched out on a bench […] He sat there paralyzed though his innards were in flight […] He longed for a friend, a father, a home to return to—saw himself packing his duds in a suitcase, buying a ticket, and running for a train. Beyond the first station he’d fling Wonderboy out the window.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Memo Paris, Pop Fisher, Iris Lemon

Related Symbols: The “Wonderboy” Bat

Page Number and Citation: 133

Explanation and Analysis:

It later struck him that the picture he had drawn of Memo sitting domestically home wasn’t exactly the girl she was. The kind he had in mind, though it bothered him to admit it, was more like Iris seemed to be, only she didn’t suit him. Yet he could not help but wonder what was in her letter.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Memo Paris, Iris Lemon

Page Number and Citation: 174

Explanation and Analysis:

Memo Paris Character Timeline in The Natural

The timeline below shows where the character Memo Paris appears in The Natural. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...his head instead. The other voice asks Bump if he is engaged to Pop’s niece, Memo, but Bump denies it; the door to the trainer’s room opens and Bump and Max... (full context)

Femininity, Stereotypes, and Destruction Theme Icon

...agrees to exchange rooms, but when he goes to see the room, he encounters a redheaded girl in her underwear who screams and slams the door when she sees him. Hobbs has... (full context)

...Hobbs enjoys it, and as they walk back to the hotel, he thinks about the girl in the black brassiere in the next room. Red tells Hobbs about the team’s troubles, noting that Bump is... (full context)

...with him in a country field. At one point, a door opens and a naked redheaded woman gets into bed with him. Hobbs thinks he is still dreaming, but he almost screams... (full context)

Mythology, Heroism, and Stardom Theme Icon

...sorry for making trouble because he wanted to ask Bump if he was expecting the redheaded woman in his room. (full context)

...who roots for Bump using a loud horn. One fan, however, stands out to Hobbs: Memo Paris, Pop’s niece and Bump’s on-again-off-again girlfriend, who has treated him coldly ever since she... (full context)

Hobbs has tried to apologize to Memo, but she blames him for the incident, ignoring his letters and phone calls. Bump finds... (full context)

...He catches the ball between his fingers but does not hear Otto Zipp’s horn, nor Memo’s shrieking, and collides with the wall, severely injuring himself and ending up on the critical... (full context)

Bump dies in the hospital, and Memo becomes “wild with grief,” dreaming of his dead body and crying non-stop. Pop, who finds... (full context)

Among these souvenirs, Memo finds pictures of her parents, now deceased; her father’s picture is torn up and reminds... (full context)

Hobbs is still struck by Memo, whom he sees from time to time in the Midtown Hotel lobby, where they have... (full context)

...Hobbs reflects that he only once wished for Bump to die—after his accidental night with Memo—and he tells Pop to tell Memo that Bump’s death wasn’t his doing. (full context)

One day, Hobbs notices Memo walk into the lobby of the Midtown Hotel with a newspaper turned to the sports... (full context)

...right, though he refuses to divulge any details of his background to the newspapers. Nonetheless, Memo still rebuffs Hobbs’s advances, even when he approaches her at the hotel and admits his... (full context)

Hobbs realizes that he needs to earn more money to attract Memo’s attention. A newspaper columnist writes an open letter to Judge Banner demanding that Hobbs’s salary... (full context)

...a bookie with a glass eye, Gus Sands, who has come to the club with Memo. Hobbs dislikes Sands immediately, feeling that he “belongs in the dark with the Judge.” (full context)

...and Gus guesses correctly; Hobbs loses, to his dismay, since he is hoping to impress Memo. Gus loses another bet, about how much money Roy has in his wallet, but wins... (full context)

...Hobbs then pulls a dead herring out of Max’s face and a duck egg from Memo’s bosom, among other items (a long salami, more silver, a white bunny, a pig’s tail).... (full context)

...it to heart. Hobbs drives around the field in his new Mercedes-Benz and stops before Memo’s box to ask if she will go out with him; she agrees. (full context)

Later, Memo and Hobbs are driving together to Jones Beach on Long Island, stopping on the way... (full context)

...sedan had been trailing them down from the city and begins to watch for it. Memo asks to stop at a stream on the way to the beach to go wading;... (full context)

Annoyed, Hobbs asks Memo what Bump had that he doesn’t. Memo tells Hobbs that Bump was “carefree and full... (full context)

Memo discusses her own life, noting to Hobbs that after her father left her family, she... (full context)

Memo asks Hobbs about himself, noting that Max Mercy says he is “sort of a mystery.”... (full context)

Hobbs and Memo get back into their car, with Memo in the driver’s seat. Hobbs asks her to... (full context)

...his dog before. Distracted, Hobbs runs his car into a tree, sustaining a black eye. Memo bruises her already-injured breast. (full context)

Pop discovers Memo and Hobbs in the hotel the next morning and is angered that Hobbs has injured... (full context)

...a hallucination, since there was no sign of blood on the car’s bumper or fender; Memo said she only screamed when Hobbs spotted the boy because she saw that they were... (full context)

...leads the Knights to a second-place position in the league. After the game, Hobbs meets Memo, who lies to him about her breast injury, telling him that she has been to... (full context)

Memo and Hobbs rarely see each other during this period, though when they meet briefly, she... (full context)

...down on the team, insisting that they follow strict rules about conduct. Pop has invited Memo to the game, assuming that Hobbs has decided to stay away from her; Memo declines... (full context)

...disappointed by each other’s physical appearances at first, they nonetheless initiate conversation. Hobbs thinks about Memo, whom he considers “remote, even unreal,” feeling grateful for Iris’s support by contrast. Eventually, they... (full context)

...is too young to be a grandfather himself, and his thoughts begin to return to Memo, who turns up in his hotel in Boston the next day; she seems to have... (full context)

That same night, Hobbs goes to find Memo in her room; Gus is with her, making Hobbs feel uncomfortable about their relationship. Roy,... (full context)

...the pennant for the World Series. At the same time, Hobbs is still yearning for Memo, imagining the life they might have together as husband and wife, though he knows that... (full context)

Memo comes over to Hobbs’s room to celebrate his recent wins, then invites him to a... (full context)

...make a living without baseball, and he wonders how he might be able to satisfy Memo without any money. Memo enters his room as he is recovering, wearing a black dress,... (full context)

Hobbs tells Memo about his plan to quit baseball and invest in a business, but she says that... (full context)

...offers to increase Hobbs’s salary for the next season and threatens Hobbs by suggesting that Memo might leave him for Sands. Hobbs agrees to the deal. Hobbs reads Iris’s letter about... (full context)

...game; he has refused to tell Mercy or any other journalists about what happened at Memo’s party. Pop apologizes to Hobbs for benching him earlier in the season and blames Memo... (full context)

Hobbs goes up to bat, but he is distracted by thoughts of Memo, as well as a memory in which his mother “drowned the black tom cat in... (full context)

...“their boy”—revealing that she is pregnant with his child. Hobbs feels a sudden disgust for Memo, and he kisses Iris. She thinks that he looks like the man who assaulted her... (full context)

...from Judge Banner. Hobbs then goes up to see the Judge, who is accompanied by Memo and Gus. Hobbs punches Gus when he tries to congratulate him, then calls Memo a... (full context)

The Natural

Memo Paris Character Analysis

Memo Paris Quotes in The Natural

Batter Up! Part 1 Quotes

Batter Up! Part 3 Quotes

Batter Up! Part 4 Quotes

Batter Up! Part 5 Quotes

Batter Up! Part 7 Quotes

Memo Paris Character Timeline in The Natural