Travis is not an amnesiac. [theory!]
Posted: 28 Dec 2011
In the opening scene, his story seems to be that he doesn't remember what happened to his parents, this according to his trucker buddy. I suspect that Travis wishes this was true, and tells people it is because it helps him avoid having to talk about it to other people, but I think he hasn't forgotten it at all. In fact, I think it's when he is faced with the monster representing his father that he asks "Why can't you let me forget?". I may be paraphrasing, I haven't played it in awhile. Still, it indicates to me that, whereas James successfully blocked out his memories, Travis has not resorted to such extreme measures.
What this means is, by my interpretation, his experience in Silent Hill is not about Travis remembering a forgotten childhood. Rather, Travis is continually haunted by these events and, unable to understand why they happened, has endeavored to avoid thinking or talking about them as much as possible. These memories are like radioactive waste and he has done the equivalent of tossing that waste into a closet where he doesn't have to look at it. It's still there and it's still harming him. And, he knows it.
So, his experience in Silent Hill is Travis being forced to face these memories and, importantly, approach them from an adult perspective. After all, he was only about ten or eleven when they happened, and his batshit crazy mom did try to kill him because she thought he was a 'devil child'. It is possible that Travis might have believed his mom was right, or at least sort of right, and if she was, then perhaps Travis might be to blame for her insanity and his father's suicide. That's the sort of absurdity a child might believe, and as a result, grow up into a man who has some serious shit fucking up his life, as Travis happens to be. But, given the chance to examine those memories firsthand, as an adult, with adult reasoning and sensibilities, he may be able to understand that his parents were assholes and it wasn't his fault.
Consider the possibility that Silent Hill presents the foci of his problems, namely, Mr. and Mrs. Asshole, as monsters because this is how a child might expect to wage a battle against his mind's darkness. A child tends to view things in black and white, in simple terms. A child will associate 'bad' with 'evil', and what more appropriate way for evil to manifest than as a monster? Part of Travis coming to grips with his past as a man is to strike down his childish concept of that past. Symbolism, wot! This may also be the driving force behind Alessa's manifestations, too: things she finds scary take on the presence of evil in her mind, and so we have monsters looking like dogs, asshole kids, asshole adults, and, uh, moths. And green little clicky-fuckers living in the sewers.
I think that's actually a rather good concept TEAM STUPID had going there, and it might have been rather glorious if they had remembered to give us perspective on this by showing us how his tragic childhood was dragging down his adulthood.
What this means is, by my interpretation, his experience in Silent Hill is not about Travis remembering a forgotten childhood. Rather, Travis is continually haunted by these events and, unable to understand why they happened, has endeavored to avoid thinking or talking about them as much as possible. These memories are like radioactive waste and he has done the equivalent of tossing that waste into a closet where he doesn't have to look at it. It's still there and it's still harming him. And, he knows it.
So, his experience in Silent Hill is Travis being forced to face these memories and, importantly, approach them from an adult perspective. After all, he was only about ten or eleven when they happened, and his batshit crazy mom did try to kill him because she thought he was a 'devil child'. It is possible that Travis might have believed his mom was right, or at least sort of right, and if she was, then perhaps Travis might be to blame for her insanity and his father's suicide. That's the sort of absurdity a child might believe, and as a result, grow up into a man who has some serious shit fucking up his life, as Travis happens to be. But, given the chance to examine those memories firsthand, as an adult, with adult reasoning and sensibilities, he may be able to understand that his parents were assholes and it wasn't his fault.
Consider the possibility that Silent Hill presents the foci of his problems, namely, Mr. and Mrs. Asshole, as monsters because this is how a child might expect to wage a battle against his mind's darkness. A child tends to view things in black and white, in simple terms. A child will associate 'bad' with 'evil', and what more appropriate way for evil to manifest than as a monster? Part of Travis coming to grips with his past as a man is to strike down his childish concept of that past. Symbolism, wot! This may also be the driving force behind Alessa's manifestations, too: things she finds scary take on the presence of evil in her mind, and so we have monsters looking like dogs, asshole kids, asshole adults, and, uh, moths. And green little clicky-fuckers living in the sewers.
I think that's actually a rather good concept TEAM STUPID had going there, and it might have been rather glorious if they had remembered to give us perspective on this by showing us how his tragic childhood was dragging down his adulthood.