The tragedy of Truman Burbank’s life is about the only thing real in Christof’s artificial reality show. Truman Burbank, a jovial and easygoing member of Seahaven’s community, is unconsciously living under numerous cameras, an enormous set, paid actors, and in front of an audience of millions of people. Truman’s whole life is a fabrication of reality. The show’s director, Christof, has formulated and molded Truman’s whole life into a series of entertaining episodes focused on the reality of one man’s life since child birth.

Truman has been blissfully ignorant and unaware of the recording devices and even suspicious behavior of his actor wife, who always pauses to introduce a sponsored product to the audience when she goes shopping. Marlon, Truman’s hired “best friend” on the show, describes the project as, “not fake, merely controlled.” And he’s exactly write but it isn’t just the show that’s controlled, it’s Truman himself. Christof, who dubs himself the “creator” acts as an oppressive, dictatorial figure who influences every aspect of Truman’s life all with the click of a button or a command through his headset. Christof’s manipulation of his “star” Truman’s life works negatively against Truman by depriving him of privacy and fooling him into believing he has the freedom to make choices when he’s actually in situations formulated by Christof.

The inability to exist in an authentic life leads to Truman’s experience of the I-It, as philosopher Martin Buber would describe it. The I-It society is a culture of experience rather than that of genuine engagement with objects or people. This draws a parallel to Truman’s life, which is filled with actors he simply “experiences” for TV ratings rather than having real relationships and interactions with actual people. In order to remedy this, Truman must find a way to escape the TV set and enter into an engaged society where he can pursue a satisfied life.

Charlotte Gelfand