I Am Number Four

Memory is an important theme in the novel, particularly in relation to Four’s identity. In the beginning of the novel, it is clear that Four is struggling to form an identity on Earth because he and Henri have been on the run for so many years. He has changed names and locations 21 times, and he has never been anywhere long enough to make friends or develop any romantic relationships. Even though he has to keep his true identity as an alien from the planet Lorien a secret, he doesn’t have a strong connection to his Lorien origins either. He was only five years old when he left Lorien, too young to remember much of his home planet.

It isn’t until Four experiences visions of the final battle between the Lorics and the Mogadorians that he begins to understand the history of his people. Before he witnessed “the blood, the tears, the dead” of that fateful battle, “the events were just part of another story, not all that different from many [he had] read in books” (86). His choice of words, such as “story” and “books” shows that he is so distant from Lorien, so detached from his identity as a Loric, that the history of his people almost sounds like a work of fiction, a bedtime story.