Kendra Green

Jon Najarian
WR100 J3 Madness and Conspiracy
11.19.14
The Truman Show Essay Draft
The adaptable monotony in Trumans dome is the exercise of a control society. The
Truman Show opens with an interview of the cast and producers of the show in the film. The
man who plays Trumans best friend in the show makes the comment Nothing you see on the
show is fake. It is just controlled (Weir). This comment is only true if fake applies only to
Trumans unscripted responses. Trumans reactions to situations may be organic, but how he
responds is molded by his upbringing, which was highly controlled by the producers of The
Truman Show. Control in this situation seems to breed falsity. With control, someone else,
Christof, can dictate Trumans responses, and though they maintain an impression of Trumans
free will, they severely restrict his ability to make choices. By taking away free will, the show
removes the organic qualities of Trumans life. Gilles Delueze presents such ever present and
amorphous power of authority in his Postscript on Societies of Control. He contends that in a
control society business model, control is maintained through perpetual mestastibility
through challenges, contests, and highly comic group sessions (Delueze 4). These qualities
mirror the adjustments made by Christof in Sea Haven in order to control Truman. Challenges
appear in The Truman Show as an attempt to have a baby, contests as Trumans insurance sales
at work, and highly comic group sessions as the constant fabricated conversation that Truman
engages in on the street and at home. These activities make it appear as though Truman has free
will to act as he pleases, but these opportunities provide only the smallest amount of individual
free will relative to the colossal control held by Christof.

The initial stasis of the film in a control society is reinforced by the element of unknown
surveillance and influence within Trumans dome. The intangible grip of a control society is vital
to its existence. J. Macgregor Wise characterizes control societies as making seemingly public
spaces into tightly managed private spaces (Wise 36). By this, he means that places that once
fostered community, like marketplaces where haggling provides interaction, under a control
society become places of individual isolation, like malls where the only interaction comes from a
barcode slid across a scanner by a cashier in a very controlled process. This form of control is
subtle, not intended to be notable to its participants, but it organizes the society into a controlled
setting where individuality is minimized. In the same way, Trumans existence is controlled by
repetitive form. Everyday, his neighbors dog jumps on him, he encounters the same people on
the street, he works in the office, and he comes home to his predictably smiling wife (Weir). The
control of the producers hides behind the faade of a typical life cycle, in the same way that the
producers physical presence hides behind the faades of hotel fronts in Sea Haven. Christof
creates a seemingly ideal control society because Truman has never experienced anything
outside of his controlled world, and thus remains completely unaware of the calculated
interactions of his every day. While the control present in the workings of a mall may be
recognized, as the participants are voluntary and have outside experiences as comparison,
Truman has no outside experiences. Early on in the film, Truman sits on the beach and a circle of
rain begins falling, only on him. Truman notices this absurd happening and playfully tries to
escape until rain begins pouring down everywhere. This choice by the shows producers shows
their confidence that Truman will not find this occurrence earth-shattering. It is a comic moment,
pandered to the audience. Truman has been conditioned to experience bizarre events within his
daily routine. While he finds the spotlight rain strange, it does not cause him to assume

something deeper. Trumans world is thus clearly a control society at the commencement of the
film due to Trumans complete blindness to the influences exerted on him daily.
The collapse of the control society begins when unpredictability is introduced to
Trumans world. Clear events occur in Trumans life, as in any other life, but they follow a clear
progression. He is born, he has birthdays, he gets married. Events that deviate from the norm,
such as the death of his father, happen in a manner that is controlled and intentional. Though the
audience of the show may find the events initially shocking, there remains predictability in the
underlying intention to keep Truman on the island. However, the perfect, contained control
society is subverted by the unpredicted event of Trumans father breaking onto the set. Such an
unpredictable event causes Truman to question his entire understanding of the world around him.
His fathers appearance is out of the ordinary in the flow of Trumans experiences, thus pulling
the curtain away from hidden structure of control in Sea Haven. Trumans very act of
questioning marks the beginning of the control societys collapse, due to the undermined of
invisible surveillance, on which a control society depends.

A control society holds support by giving conveying the idea that the world is better
under an all controlling
- Utopia
o Use lavoie
o Use christof argument that Sea Haven is better than the real world
o Explore through trumans questioning of the control
If unpredictability begins the breakdown of control, erraticism escalates the process.
- Truman intentionally deviates from control

o Usually he greets his neighbors with the same line Goodmorning!.. And in case
I dont see you, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight! - Regularity
o Acts out, running across streets trying to leave
- Wise control society = modulation small adjustments
o Cant make small adjustments to fix large deviations
o Shift to larger reactions => return to disciplinary roots of control
- Not unknown, modulation no longer works Control society gone
With the lack of a control society means, Christof must resort to disciplinary
- Foucaults panopticon features always watched, threat of violence
- Violence in forest keep Truman inside the prison
- Scene when he disappears (Searchlight eye, violent storm)
Both power societies fail, Christof resorts to the God card
- Reveals himself as a self proclaimed God figure in a final power play
- Truman defeats this ploy for power too you never had a camera in my head
Conclusion: Collapse of control society reveals foundational claims to power. Trumans ability
to escape them symbolically speaks to the role of the individual in the power he allows others
over himself.