One Man's Distorted Reality: The Truman Show
Shannon O’Dwyer
The 1998 film, The Truman Show, has become a beloved classic with a seemingly surreal plot. Everyone has wondered what it would be like if their life was a movie, what the soundtrack would be, what would be the major plot points. It is easy to believe that your movie world would be all peaches and cream, or in other cases, a dramatized portal of your existence. The Truman Show broke down these assumptions of what life in a movie would be like, and in turn, was a tragedy masquerading as a comedy. This tragedy can be seen through the struggles Truman (Jim Carrey) goes through as a “real person in a fake world,” and the easiness of his life in juxtaposition to a real one.
“The Truman Show,” the show within the movie, was created by a man named Christof who had the idea to show a real human life on live television. Therefore he invented“The Truman Show,” where one man was filmed through 5,000 hidden cameras. Truman’s world consisted of staged interventions between characters (as everyone he knew was an actor), and even a set. In the film, “The Truman Show” was shot in a dome-like structure in Hollywood, California, where weather, lighting, sound, and virtually everything else could be controlled. Truman is blatantly unaware of this false reality he resides in, until his world begins to crumble as he starts to uncover the truth. Throughout the film, the viewers' questions begin to accumulate as they contemplate the story’s themes.
If the environment around you is controlled, down to the minute details, are you even real? Was Truman actually living?
Towards the end of the film, as Truman is on the brink of leaving the only world he’s ever known, he is confronted by the disembodied voice of Christof. After a brief discussion, Truman asks, “Am I real?” only to get the reply, “You were real. That’s what made you so good to watch.” This line always perplexed me. How could Truman possibly have been real if everything around him was false? He never grew up with a proper life experience as his entire life was controlled, down to the clothes he wore and the woman he married. The audience never truly got to see him fall in love with the woman of his choice, or make any cognitive decisions.
Truman is a manufactured product; he’s impeccably perfect. The audience never saw him having to struggle because he had never been truly exposed to any struggle. TV, even reality TV is not inherently real; rather it’s a reflection that reality wants to see.
Throughout The Truman Show, Truman’s wife, Meryl, is constantly advertising as “everything on ‘The Truman Show’ is for sale, from the clothing to homes.” Truman himself is a product: a product of his environment. Truman as a person has little substance; he was created to be normal. Everyday, he gets up, greets his neighbors with a friendly, “Good Morning. And in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight,” goes to work and then home. He was created to have a simple life, an ‘All-American’ life. Truman in and of himself is a product of what the ‘All-American Man’ should look like. He does not have a real life and therefore could never know what a real life encompasses.
Truman’s life is about as real as reality TV; a sort of controlled fabrication. According to The University of Cincinnati, “Ultimately, producers create contrived scenarios, then aim cameras at people who ‘act obnoxious,’ ... so they have a better chance of making the final footage.” While the people in reality TV are entertaining to watch, their lives are not real; they are an exaggeration of one aspect about them. Often in reality TV, the contestants/participants are put into unrealistic situations (like being stuck on an island, or being ridiculously wealthy for some reason), making their actions seem more believable. However, Truman is just living his life with nothing too special that went on. Except for one fabricated event in his childhood: the death of his father. The producers of “The Truman Show” had to ensure a way Truman would stay on the island, therefore they drowned his dad to give Truman a fear of water. This not only provided Truman with lifelong traumatic imagery, but also provided for extremely entertaining television.
But what makes reality TV so interesting?
Perhaps it's because we like to watch others who are successful, or we like to watch others’ drama and struggles so we don’t need to focus on our own. Maybe we’d watch a competition show just to hypothesize how far we’d go. The point is, reality TV gives people an escape from their real lives to focus on someone else’s. Rather than a regular television show that one would want to invest in, reality TV is purely for entertainment, making it easier to watch without having to worry about missing an episode. This would be the same for people who watch Truman; they know that if they miss a day, it is likely to be a day just like any other. The viewers connect to Truman because they wish their lives were that simple and easy, almost a reverse of reality TV.
Some people watch reality TV to see people who are worse off than them (typically in unexpected ways, like people who are unhappy). This gives them comfort knowing they are happier than these millionaires who are constantly in one emotional battle after another.
But Truman is different. For some, watching Truman may be the only stable thing in their lives. Truman is never-changing, simplistic, and content, despite wanting to travel the world. He claims he wants to leave town to travel, but most of this desire comes from the strangeness that he begins noticing. Before that, Truman was happy. His audience can rely on and trust him to always be a nice guy, to be something ‘real.’ He is the portal of the ‘American Dream’ on television. What would be better than to watch someone living the ‘American Dream’?
Now the question this all boils down to is: Did Truman make the right decision in leaving?
The most famous line the film gives is, “We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented.” This is the explanation of why Truman never questioned anything leading up to the start of the film; he had accepted everything around him as anything else would be unfathomable to believe. It is impossible to hypothesize how one might react to the discovery that they are living in a made up world, but we can imagine the bewilderment and complete confusion.
Now in this confusion, as Truman slowly uncovers the truth, he decides he must find out what the outside world is like. He tricks the producers into thinking he’s asleep, then sneaks out of his own home to a waiting boat. His producers are still under the assumption that Truman is afraid of the ocean, so they send out a full search party. Even if Truman had stayed on land, there would be no circumstance where the producers could explain the search party, which would make it harder for Truman to stay.
The climax of the film comes when the television producers change the time of day and create an extremely massive storm in order to stop Truman from leaving. When confronted with how morally wrong it would be to kill a man on live television, Christof remarked, “He was born on live television,” as if to say he would do anything in pursuit of stopping Truman. For Christof, it was never about Truman’s well-being, despite all of his claims; rather it was for the production and the acclaim he received. Even when escaping, Truman had only a vague idea of what his world was intended for, but he knew that no one truly cared about him in a personal sense. At this point in the film, it may seem obvious that Truman should leave, but it’s not that simple. To leave would be to let go of everything he knew. But to stay would be to live in a fake world, except this time knowing everything was false. The mental toll of living in a false society would wear Truman down, burdening him with the thought of feeling as though he is trapped. Trapped in an endless cycle of attempting to rebuild a life he once had without any of the materials to build it with. However, there’s a beauty in staying. To stay would mean he accepts and forgives Christof and everyone else he knew for keeping him oblivious all those years. Truman’s leaving can be a sign of weakness of his inability to cope with loss, to flee rather than to conquer. To stay could be the world’s biggest power move if it meant Truman learned forgiveness. It is important to note that maybe Truman didn’t need to forgive his suppressors, however. The story was meant to make the viewers contemplate all of the possible solutions. It is up to the audience to decide whether or not they believe he should’ve stayed and why the choice he made was wrong.
Would it be better to have to discover a new dangerous world full of opportunity, or live in one where you felt safe, but lied to?
The ultimate question is dependent on the person: what’s more important? Safety and security, or unstable opportunities? It’s the difference between those who live in the same state or city their whole lives, and those who jump into the abyss of different lands.
Truman had ambition to be a world traveler, so for Truman, the possibilities that leaving brought were far greater than its downfalls. But as with many other themes in this film, Truman's choice is not always a reality. Frankly, I’d like to see the film of the man who stayed, who chose security. I want to know what it would be like to watch a man who was compliant to his suppressor out of fear. That is something I believe is a likely reality for some; some never overcome their fears and therefore, they stay. A portrayal like that is seldom seen in Hollywood, but to see it would be raw and real. Not only that, but it certainly would be an unexpected ending, one that may upset the audience, but will ultimately show true artistic integrity because the screenwriter is taking a risk. Maybe there’s a world in which Truman had taken the road less traveled. That would be a world I’d be very curious to see.
