The Father-Thing

Phillip K. Dick's "The Father-Thing" was one of my favorite reads. Dick's overall short stories were very entertaining and it's unbelievable to me that his stories were not  popular in his time. Dick's stories have a way of depicting clear and fluid imagery in my head and it made me enjoy his imagination. The aspect that I really enjoyed about "The Father-Thing" was how eerie it was. Charles is a little boy, who is no older than 7, and is completely defenseless up until his friends rescue him. That fact that this occurrence happened in an ordinary home setting with ordinary people, really disturbs my sense of comfort in my own reality. Charles understands that his father is no longer there, and takes the initiative to destroy this father-like thing. The story does border the uncanny in a sense, it disturbs our sense of reality and familiar things in our life, and it heavily suggests that this "thing" is alien; despise the fact that it took over on Charles father's identity.

In sum, I think that Dick's story has an uneasy feel to it because it relates close to home for me, and it isn't too far from reality...I believe in other life in space, and this could likely happen, a take over I mean. His story makes me question my own comfort and reality..."what if, nothing is as it seems?"