When I was at a friend's house, years ago (I
think in the sixth grade), we watched the Truman Show together. As we were
watching the show I remember being so concerned for Truman. I kept making sure
that this was a movie that wasn't based on a real event, and my friend's
brother kept reassuring me that it was in fact an imaginary storyline. It's
interesting to me that I never thought about how my concern for Truman was
polar opposite to those watching Truman's life play out in the film and how
this exemplified philosophy in the film. Years later, now in my freshman year
of college, here I was doing a group project on the same film, only this time I
knew what to look for. Ever since I saw it again I felt a new passion for
sharing my frustrations about how Truman is treated. And yet, there is a part
of me that almost is respectful and appreciative of Christof and his crew. They
take good care of Truman, after all, but what does it mean to take care of
someone and not allow them to have freedom? Didn't kings and queens take care
of their servants? They housed them, fed them, but did they have freedom? No.
Absolutely not. And yet, because Truman lacks this knowledge of the
outside world and he lacks the freedom to truly do what he desires, it
frustrates me. However, at the end of the film, even after being lied to for
his entire life, Truman doesn’t get angry and yell and yell. He doesn’t break
down crying. He doesn’t react in any way how I would have reacted had my world
fallen apart like his. Instead he handles all of it with a smile and a sense of
humor. And I could never understand that until this time around! He knows he’s
been mistreated by them and their world, but he now knows that he doesn’t have
to be there. He can go and leave and be where and who he wants to be. He isn’t
bound by their lies and by their limitation of space anymore, and that is why
he has a reason to celebrate. :)
(h3) This just gave me thought. Leibniz and the windowless Monad anyone?
ReplyDelete(H3) I'm taking a criminal justice class this semester and we've recently been discussing Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Though Christof and his crew "took care of Truman" and met his basic needs, they did this to further their own agenda. It's the same as a pimp giving his "girls" food and clothes for their "services". The women are not free, neither is Truman. They are trapped but people only out for themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt's just like the cave, sometimes its best to be unaware of what's outside H3
ReplyDeleteI never would have gone this in depth in a show, with philosophy. I do it with psychology though. I guess it is just because philosophy still has not really gotten my 'attention', for lack of a better word.
ReplyDeleteI watched the Truman Show previously for a sociology class and we simply discussed the society of conforming, norms, and morals along it. Your writing helped me see a different view I had not yet considered. One thing I would like to see is a similar situation in which Truman was not shaped as much. I would like to see if he would have stayed in his bubble simply to conform to the society and morals that so many do regardless of other knowledge. This movie, when I first watched it, made me terrified that I was in this same world, as I had never tried to go beyond my normal routine and that fear sometimes still follows me, irrational as it may be.
ReplyDelete