The Truman Show Essay

“Truman Show” Follow Up Assignment
“We accept the reality of the world which we are presented. It is as simple as that.”

The Truman Show is a fictional movie about the story of Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey), a 29 yearna old man who has unknowingly been filmed as a part of a live television show all his life. Truman is a sincere and pleasant individual, he lives a seemingly ideal life in the charming and secure town of Seahaven. Nevertheless this “perfect” town was created specifically for him (Truman Burbank) and emulates a classic depiction of the American Dream in the form of an American suburbia. Truman is well known and loved by all the inhabitants of the aforementioned city of Seahaven, however it should be noted that these inhabitants are just actors and actresses being meticulously coordinated by the man overlooking Seahaven from the sky, Cristoff (Ed Harris).
During an interview, Cristoff is asked by a journalist “Why do you think Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world, until now?” and he replied “We accept the reality of the world which we are presented. It is as simple as that.” this direct quote relates to the movie because Truman took 29 years to begin to realize reality is not as perfect as the one portrayed in his world. During all his life Truman disregarded all the disruptions of consistency within his reality and accepted the schema that was presented in the utopian 1960’s town of Seahaven. Truman’s life is but his own perspective and the objective reality of his life being highly controlled and filmed as a television show is involuntarily disregarded by Truman. An example is Truman never questioning the recurrence of unconcealed product placement i.e. His wife announcing the brands of products she commonly utilizes. In addition to this Truman never truly wonders why events in his daily routine seem to consistently repeat themselves because he conforms to his reality. Truman begins to understand the objective truth of his existence because of a series of mistakes made by the production of the Truman Show.
The Truman Show evaluates the idea of how each person has a subjective perspective in relation to the objective truth of reality. As an individual learns new concepts and explores new realities, this subjective perspective of life often diverges from its original state and in order for one to incorporate this new schema, one has to relinquish old beliefs. This process is imperative to understand more accurately the objective reality of the world we live in and understand the “Tru-man” within. Truman accepts his existence until a series of events make him wake up from his fantasy as we as individuals will have to eventually understand and confront the objective of our own reality.
A relevant theme in this movie is the subjective nature of reality. It is understood by the viewer that Truman’s world is just a television show filmed within a large Hollywood set, yet Truman believes his existence is undoubtedly factual until he ultimately sails and finds conclusive evidence that renders him to understand his reality. This discovery shows the fine line between the subjective and the objective understanding of our reality. Another predominant theme is the influence of the media, this is shown several times by how Cristoff is shown as an ethereal figure controlling Truman’s

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