The Truman Show

Reflection

Does Truman have the personality or the characteristics of a

philosopher? Why or why not?

Truman does show some characteristics of a philosopher. At the

beginning of the film he is living his life with no question of his reality, even when
the watchers in the film of the Truman Show, would sneak onto the set and try to
tell Truman that he is on television, he did not seem bothered by these people.

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Only one person in his life influenced his beliefs but even she was unable to tell

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him the full truth. He seemed to live his life completely normally as if the people

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around him were not actors and the city was not just a set made in Hollywood.

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Once questions were being made about his reality; when his dad came back on

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set and the actors shoved him onto a bus to make sure Truman stayed in the
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reality he was already in. This made Truman question where he was, also when
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he went into the elevator and saw the stage crew eating and drinking coffee, at
this point he began questioning his reality. Questioning reality and asking
questions is a characteristic found in a philosopher. Philosophers' theories can
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completely change someone's reality. This is what Truman was trying to figure
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out, he had to completely change the reality that he saw every day and ask
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himself questions about his realty, this is something a philosopher would do.

He shows that he views his reality as an empiricist's point of view. With

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what he experiences becoming his reality. While he was not being influenced to
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change his perception he believed that his reality was not a television show
when he started to experience things that questioned that, this is when he
began to change his perception.

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Discuss the similarities and differences between the story in Plato’s

Allegory of the Cave, and the story of the Truman Show.

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The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the cave have very similar
concepts. In both, you can see a forced reality. The prisoners in Plato’s Allegory
are just like Truman, they live in a forced reality that can be watched by others.
They both learn and become enlightened by learning and changing their reality.
Both when they enter the “real world” can become part of that new reality. The

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 difference is that in Plato's Allegory is multiple people are living in the cave that
is like Truman while in the Truman show it is solely Truman living without the
knowledge of his reality. Also in Plato's allegory, no actors are aiding in the
forced reality more people have been enlightened that have come back to try
and enlighten others while in The Truman Show when people try to tell Truman
the truth they are immediately removed and their actions are covered up.

What is the underlying message or idea in The Truman Show?

The underlying message of the Truman Show is to make the watchers

question their reality. When people question things other people tend to think
and question things themselves. Truman truly believed that he was living a

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normal life just as we do every day. By watching this film you can start to

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question the nature of your reality. When you start questioning your reality your

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perception changes, you can being to see small changes that you didn’t notice

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before, this opens up your mind and will allow you to learn new things.

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Philosophers spend their lives questioning theories and that is what The Truman
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Show is trying to do, make you question.

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Do you think this is a successful film? Why or why not?

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I believe that this film was very successful, I watched this film with my
family and this made us discuss for hours after. We still discuss the main topics
of the film. Since the underlying message of the film was to make people
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question their reality I believe it did a good job at this for my family. Also, the fact
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that the movie is being used in many classrooms to help teach people about the
perception of reality shows signs that it is quite successful. The film was also
able to predict the future of social media. Our lives now are quite similar to the
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Truman Show, except the difference is that we have the knowledge that we are
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being broadcasted to everyone while Truman did not know. On social media, we
post about our daily lives and we are being watched through our internet search
history and our credit cards being tracked through each payment. The Truman
show is partially our reality especially for people who are famous like Jim Carrey.
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Jim Carrey was influenced greatly by the Truman show. As he was becoming an
A-list celebrity his life was constantly being followed by paparazzi and his life
was in constant viewing. The Truman Show was successful in not only making
us question our perception of reality but was also successful in showing us the
workings of social media.

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