The Truman Show: Perception And Isolation

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“The Truman Show” Essay “The Truman Show” is a movie that explores perception and isolation. Starting out, every scene that plays makes the life of the main character, Truman Burbank, appear mundane and ordinary. However, as the story progresses, and due to the recollections he has, Truman begins to realize that something is not right about his life. Despite being blocked at every step of the way, he eventually overcomes all his obstacles and discovers his way out of the T.V. set and into the unknown world. Truman’s entire life holds great similarities to Plato’s cave analogy. Alike to the cave, where the prisoner only saw shadows of the real thing, the main character of the movie only ever saw shadows of real people, objects, and ideas. Every single person, be it friend or family, that he met was a hired actor that only simulated life from the outside world. Even immense objects, such as the machine-operated moon, were only copies. Greatest of all, Truman only ever experienced a wispy shadow of unrequited love in his wife, which …show more content…

Truman only knew the life that had been constructed around him. To summon the will to challenge what he knew, and to take action the action to change it, required an immense amount of courage. While “breaking in” to his wife’s work and fighting for his life were extreme acts, I believe Truman was most courageousness upon his steps to freedom. The unknown can be frightening, but he swallowed back that fear in search of a world that was not orchestrated around him at every turn. While I do not think it played a key role, I believe Truman also displays hints of Justice. The entire premise of his quest was in search of justness against the immoral containment that he faced. Being imprisoned, from birth, was never truly just. Without the virtues mentioned above, Truman would have likely failed his quest, for either his fears or inattentiveness would have been his

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