The Father-Thing and Memories

In The Father-Thing we read about a parasite that operates by creating doppelgangers who replace families. In this narrative the father of the family is replaced by one such clone. When the clone wishes to appear human it recites information from the memories stolen from the original father. In this way the author provides proof that the copy possesses all the previous memories of the real father. In this way Phillip K. Dick addresses the ways in which memories do not define people. The clone, though it possessed all the memories of the real father was nothing like the protagonist's real dad. The memories, though they may have influenced the copy's actions, did not define who or what it was but merely provided it with information. If memories defined who people were then the doppelganger would have been impossible to determine to be fake, even by his son Charles.