The Truman Show

“The Truman Show” is a film about a reality television show that was created to depict the life of Truman Burbank, the main character in the show who was adopted by the networking company, he is made to believe that the environment he lives in is true and real, this is his reality. The film is set in the made up town of Seahaven, which is a simulated world made to be similar to the real world in order for the audience to be able to relate to the events. The set of Seahaven is inside a large dome structure where the special effects crew can control things such as the weather, the time of day, along with the actions of all of the actions made by his fellow citizens. Truman Burbank is the only character starring in the television series who
For example, if Truman had been told in school that Seahaven was the only land on earth he would have to accept it as true. Truman’s ‘shadows’ are the people (actors) in the town creating a false sense of love, friendship and loyalty. Although, because of Truman’s curiosity and knowledge, along with some of the situations and experiences he has seen and been exposed to, he was able to come to the conclusion that something about his world was not right and he plans his escape, eventually succeeding. One of the differences between Truman and the prisoner, in The Allegory of the Cave, is that Truman’s exposure to the world outside was more gradual which made his realization easier to handle when his world unraveled, unlike the prisoner who stepped into the light of day and went
The confined world that Truman Burbank lived in raised doubts and suspicions about his ‘freedom.’ In order to uncover what is really real, Truman begins to doubt everything in the world around him, much like René Descartes did when he was on his search to discover what he could believe as truly real. Truman later went on to question his fellow workers, friends, and family and eventually leaving Seahaven, the only place he had ever known. All of these actions were similar to that of the prisoner in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave; both Truman as well as the prisoner choose to escape their distinguished, set apart worlds, preferring to learn about and suffer through the real world, rather than remain in the environment they have become accustomed to. Therefore, it can be argued that “The Truman Show” portrays that by not taking things at their face value and digging deeper into the world around, what is really real can be