Background:
The Truman Show is a 1998 film starring Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, an ordinary man who lives at an ordinary house in an ordinary town. However, Truman begins to realize that his whole life is a lie. His life is a nationwide smash hit of a reality television show detailing the entirety of Truman’s life for the past 30 years. As he begins to understand the truth, the themes and philosophical ideas of the film really start to shine through.
Philosophical Ideas: Reality v. Perceived Reality
The main ideas that are evoked in this film are ideas of reality juxtaposed with the opposing perceived reality in everyday life. Truman goes about most of his life without a care or worry in the world and there’s an entire town built around keeping that reality true. From the neighborhood mailman to your best friend of 15 years, all of it is manufactured. And so when reality starts to peek through Truman’s show of a life, all the truths of reality begin to seep through as well. Truman starts to feel painful longing for a mysterious woman he can’t quite remember. He remembers a son he had before being horribly taken away from him. All of these hard truths are revealed to Truman and only have him more interested in finding out more about the reality he never knew. This manufactured way of life is something that is emphasized to be how we as a society usually tend to live as well.
From deciding what news station to listen to to escaping into false fantasies in media, the line between the authentic and the inauthentic becomes blurred. Truman never has tragedy strike him and for the most part, his days remain monotonous and routine. This same schedule starts to wane on Truman leaving him anxious for something new. So when he finally finds the end of his false reality, the true test of his philosophical arc is in front of him. He is surrounded by the walls of his life, quite literally, seeing them painted into the bluest of skies with the fluffiest of clouds looking like they were just wisped together ever so perfectly. Truman’s fake sunlight and breeze slides across his face as he opens the door to what is to be “real life”. The door is small but seems to lead to a dark and unknown place. This imagery heavily conveys the philosophical idea of what would be better; a comfortable, safe existence or the elusive and complex counterpart. It’s a deep moral quandary that is brought up in other films such as The Matrix, but in this instance, the audience gets a much more personal experience through the eyes of Truman. So when he decides to go through that door, the question is raised whether he made the right choice or not and if reality is really worth more than a fixed one.
How It Relates To Today:
The film being released in 1998, a time when reality TV was booming, the ideas seem very much of the time. But, at the same time, the concept of altered realities seems to hold even truer today in our society. From outsider politicians gaining power such as Trump to mass sexual assault charges being uncovered in Hollywood to police brutality just now garnering attention, the idea that a lot of people, if not everyone, sees the world through some shade of rose tinted glasses is not so ridiculous.
Subsequently, The Truman Show showcases the innumerable amount of falsity that saturates our lives. Truman shows the audience of not only his show but of the film the effect knowing the truth has on someone as well as showing to everyone that although he may be an outsider in the world, he is more human and alike to them than they ever noticed. In this way, Truman represents all of us, all of us wanting a better fantasy than what we got.
Quiz:
1. The main philosophy conveyed is the relationship between _____and______?
2. What does it mean by having the door lead to darkness?
3. What does Truman represent?
4. Do the ideas stand true still today?
DQ:
1. Do you feel we are all living very filtered and possibly inauthentic lives or do you think we as a whole, have a grasp of true reality?
2. If you were in a reality built around you and perfect for you, would you stay in that reality knowing there is a more "real" reality available?
Midterm report blog post: https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2018/10/philosophies-of-game-of-thrones.html
Final report comments: https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2018/11/hagan-himym-pt-2.html?showComment=1543807000007#c1415531920506104303
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2018/11/thephilosophy-of-music-philosophy-of.html?showComment=1543807450207#c2110855303184836178
I love the Truman show and your take on it. I never noticed the deeper meaning behind Truman and the false realities representing our own lives.
ReplyDeleteRelating to our discussion of your second discussion question "If you were in a reality built around you and perfect for you, would you stay in that reality, knowing there is a more "real" reality available?" that we had in class, I had an interesting thought. Although we stated that most people would want to escape the "false" reality for real experiences, I wonder if the actual act of leaving the extreme comfort of the matrix or the Truman Show would prohibit most people. I'm not trying to doubt anyone, but I'm sure that if some people looked into the endless abyss beyond the door or saw the cloudy radioactive sky of the real Earth in the Matrix, people might question their ideals a bit.
ReplyDeleteI might just be acting a bit contrarian, but I think its easy to say that we would rather enjoy the extremely harsh reality, knowing that we would never actually need to make that choice. Good question & great presentation.
1. Do you feel we are all living very filtered and possibly inauthentic lives or do you think we as a whole, have a grasp of true reality?
ReplyDeleteI think about this question a lot. There are many ways to see life, and the idea that everything is filtered or unauthentic is pretty reasonable to me. We just don't have enough knowledge to know what is true reality. Just like Truman for most of his life. If you believe that a fake reality is real from the start of your life, it would make sense that you would live by it. There is nothing to tell you other wise. That is why curiosity is so important. We must never stop asking questions or we will never know what is happening around us.
I liked the discussion we had in class over your topic. I love this show and your take on the topic! I never looked at it the way you did. I found it very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm struck by how much this resembles the premise of Plato's allegory of the cave, and how exceptional it is of philosophers to want to escape a pleasant but false reality.
ReplyDeleteWe visited Seaside FL last year. Still looks like a film set, almost TOO "real"...
DQ 2. If you were in a reality built around you and perfect for you, would you stay in that reality knowing there is a more "real" reality available?
ReplyDeleteIf I knew I was doomed to an eternity of contentment, I wouldn't want to lose it. The real world is uncertain with no promise of happiness. A world with certain but unreal satisfaction is better than ours.
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