The formal definition of life is “the existence of an individual human being or animal.” This existence that we are all having called “life” can throw many curveballs in our direction. We have a choice to either try to hit the curveballs and succeed, or run away from it because we are afraid of what will happen. In the music video “Sail” by AWOLNATION, there is a flashing white light that seems to be a UFO outside of the house. In the video, the UFO is a visual motif that symbolizes a personal issue, and the motif helps to develop the theme that trying to escape from the problems in your life will not solve or get rid of the dilemma.

The UFO motif in the video shows that your problems will follow you wherever you go. Depending on the severity of their issues in life, a person will do whatever they possibly can in order to evade the complication instead of trying to manage it head on. An instance that shows this occurs between times 1:58 and 2:05 in the video. There is a green line that seems to be coming from the UFO producing the white light, scanning the house, as if looking for the protagonist, knowing that they cannot escape. The protagonist frantically hides in a bathtub filled with water to somehow escape from being detected. He is willing to almost “drown” himself in order to escape from his life problems. He is constantly wanting to avoid what he fears at all costs, no matter what the consequences, because that is how heavy his problems are on his shoulders. The problem is literally searching for the character and following him throughout the scene. This instance of the unidentified flying object develops the theme because since the motif represents the dilemma, the UFO searching for the character represents that your issues will follow you wherever you go, no matter how far you run or where you hide.

Since a problem can follow a person wherever they go, whenever a person is avoiding a problem, they will eventually have to deal with it since the issue will not disappear. Once a person realizes that the issue is reappearing and is coming for them, they are going to get pulled back into the situation unwillingly. The occurrence of the motif that shows an example of this occurs at time 2:23, where it is a close-up of the protagonist being dragged out of the house by a gravitational force from the UFO, and he is trying to fight against the force pulling him by clutching the wall. He tightly closes his eyes, not wanting to see what is happening to him in that moment. Through this close-up shot, the viewer can see that his face shows a great amount of hopelessness, desperation, and especially fear. The force of his burdens are literally dragging him down. He is becoming increasingly overwhelmed and his returning problems are overpowering him. This instance visually shows that an issue will eventually force you to deal with it, no matter how hard you fight against it. The gravitational force of the issue is so strong on the character that it is almost unavoidable. 

Problems are unavoidable, so an individual will have to accept dealing with them and accept any and all consequences. The last instance of the motif that shows that difficult situations will eventually have to be accepted and dealt with occurs between times 3:15 and 3:35. The protagonist is sitting at the piano, which is slowly but surely moving towards the front door of the house, where the bright light from the UFO is the most prominent. At this point, as shown by his face and his body language, the character is accepting his fate of being “abducted” by his issues; he is not showing any type of resistance, even though he greatly fears what is going to happen to him. Since the light/UFO is representative of a personal life problem, the scene is showing that one must gradually accept their complications in life. When an issue comes up, regardless of how far a person distances themselves from that issue, the problem will return and it will force the individual to deal with them.

“Sail” by AWOLNATION is a depiction of how running away from one’s issues in life will not solve anything. The only way to get rid of those burdens is to face them head on, and accepting that they should be faced. Each instance of the motif show a different step in the process of the main character dealing with his issues. Initially, a person will sometimes evade a difficult obstacle, therefore running away, or hiding from the situation, despite the problem following them. Then, the dilemma will come back to the surface, and drag the individual back into the situation to force them to face it, despite them fighting against it. Eventually, the individual must learn how to accept that they will need to deal with the problem, and that they must accept the outcome and the consequences.
