Dequito, Margret D.

UNDSELF P

190552

The Self in the Truman Show (1998)

Truman Burbank lives a perfectly simple life, people around him loves talking with him a

lot. He works as a desk clerk at an insurance company, he has a best friend whom he grew up with,

he also has a wife named Meryl and they live in a very ordinary neighborhood. Despite having all

of these, Truman was not happy with his life. He always wanted to explore the world and go to a

place called Fiji, and find the woman whom he truly loves named Sylvia, but Truman has a phobia

with the ocean because of the incident he had that caused his father’s so called “death.” Truman

met Sylvia at their school ground one day, but all of a sudden when Truman got distracted, Sylvia

was nowhere to be found.

Luckily one night, Sylvia managed to bring Truman at the sea side and said she has only

little time to spare because there are “people” who are after her that doesn’t want her to tell him

the truth about everything. Just as she was about to explain to Truman what situation he is truly in,

a guy who proclaims to be her “father” forcefully grabbed Sylvia into his car. As they are about to

leave, Sylvia desperately explained to Truman that everything was a fake, everyone around him

knows about him. Little did he knew then, Sylvia was actually telling the truth.

As Truman was driving on his way to work, there was a malfunction with his radio and he

actually heard a guy telling exactly what was Truman going to do next. Dumbfounded by what

just happened, since then Truman is desperate to know the truth about everything. After he found

his father whom he thought was dead and broke up with his wife, the people behind the suspicious
actions thought that Truman was back to normal. But he was actually plotting a way to trick them

and finally find out the truth, and he did. Truman found out that everything was actually fake, just

like what Sylvia was telling him.

Truman found out that he was living in a dome that has about five thousand hidden

cameras that takes everything he does from when he was born. As he was about to leave the dome,

a guy named Crystoff explained to Truman that he was filming him for a show called Truman’s

Show and that Truman was the star of the show. Crystoff said that if Truman leaves the dome, he

will not going to have the benefits that not most people have. But Truman have chosen to leave

the dome and live a life he never had.

Last meeting, we discussed about Philosophical themes Avocado/Essentialism and

Artichoke/Existentialism. The avocado view indicates that everyone has a core that serves as

essence. It explains that every human being has a unique essence or components within them that

makes them who they are, and that makes them different from others. The artichoke view on the

other hand, indicates that everyone has no core. It says that human beings can choose whatever or

whoever they want to be, they don’t have a fixed essence, they have the freedom to create their

own self.

The philosophical theme that can be found in the movie is Existentialism or the Artichoke

view. At first Truman was used to the things around him because it is how it was presented to him,

therefore he accepts it just the way it is. But later on, as he unravel the truth, he did not let other

people define who he is. Just like how artichoke view was explained, Truman chose who he wants

to be and he can only attain it through leaving the dome, and he did. As he leaves the dome, he has

the freedom to live a life that he wants and to be the person he wants to be.
 Everything in the movie was a choice. The director of the Truman’s show chose to

manipulate Truman from the moment he was born. He created that dome believing that every man

accepts things the way it is presented to them, but Truman proves him wrong. When Truman

gradually find out the truth, he did not let those people around him tell him who he should be. He

chose to find the freedom he never had. He chose not to be defined as to what others think of him,

he chose not to be manipulated by those who think that they could control everything in his life.

The freedom that Truman wants was not just given to him, but rather he gained it for

himself. At the beginning of the story, the director of the show didn’t give Truman the chance to

choose but as Truman find out about the truth, he strives for the freedom he choose to have that he

never had before. Truman was not satisfied with the life he had, he always wanted more. So when

he had the idea that he was being manipulated he worked hard for the things he wanted, and that

is freedom. Just when the directors of the show thought that Truman was just sleeping, what was

Truman actually doing was digging a hole on his lawn and sail to get out of the island. He gained

freedom through working hard and tricking those people around him to get out from that place,

because of that he was able to have the freedom he always wanted and to choose who he wants to

be.

Truman was consistent with the love he has for Sylvia and with the things he wanted.

Though at first, he did not have the perseverance to strive for those things but only because he was

not aware that he was being manipulated. Because he was not aware, he was contented with the

things he has but he knows that there was this longing he have always felt. He longs for his true

love that he thought was in Fiji and because he doesn’t have a picture of her, he cuts off pictures

from magazines and match them to create Sylvia’s face, he longs for his father whom he thought

was dead, and he longs to explore the world but he couldn’t do it because he’s afraid of the ocean.
Everything that Truman felt was all consistent from when he was not aware of how things were

until he finds out about the truth.

Truman was conscious of the things he truly wants but unconscious with the truth about

the things that are actually happening around him. Truman does not really love Meryl, but he truly

love is Sylvia. He would always think about her, he would cut off images of a woman from a

magazines to match Sylvia’s face. He was aware of his love for her, if Sylvia was not cut off from

the show Truman knew he would rather marry her than Meryl. Truman didn’t mind what Sylvia

said before she was gone, he was unconscious of what was really happening around him until that

incident he had with his radio. Since then, he continued asking questions until he found out about

the truth. It motivates him to pursue his conscious love for Sylvia, and with the things he wanted.

The movie Truman’s Show is quiet disturbing thinking that someone like Truman was

being manipulated throughout his life. But despite of the manipulation that was happening, as

viewed in artichoke philosophical theme, Truman did not let others define his life or define who

he really is when he finally found out about the truth. He chose to strive for the freedom he wanted

by gaining it for himself, and what motivates him the most is his consistency with the things he

actually wanted from the very beginning and that is his conscious love for Sylvia.