Replaceable

In the story "The Father Thing", Charles' father Ted is replaced by some creature with the same body and features. This imitation kind of reminds me of the 1982 film, "The Thing" which was directed by John Carpenter. In this film an alien can shapeshift into a person and this ability causes the group of people to distrust one another because they don't know who has been killed and "taken over". This idea of someone being replaced so easily I think undermines one's sense of uniqueness or importance, and I also think that knowing that someone can be imitated like that makes us fear that people aren't who they really are on the "inside". Or that the outside appearance, whether that consists of physical appearance or even behavior, does not match with what should be "inside". I think this "inside" would consist of a person's true thoughts, feelings ,etc; the opposite of of outside. Our sense of reality is shaken with this disjunction between outside appearance to the true self of the inside.