How Does Philosophy Contribute to a Richer Understanding of The Truman Show?

At its surface level The Truman Show may seem to be a comedic story about a reality show gone wrong. The hilarity of Truman and the absurdity of some of the scenes keeps viewers actively engaged and laughing. From the unrealistic moon, the freak rain that showers only over Truman, and the ridiculous product placement it would be easy to accept the film as a comedy. When viewed through a philosophical lens, however, The Truman Show has much more to say. When using the ideas of philosopher’s such as Buber, Descartes, Spinoza, and James one can gain a deeper understanding of the film.

Throughout The Truman Show, the concepts of free will, reality, and the true self are developed and show a much more complex analysis of what happening throughout the film. Philosophy can be used in many ways to develop a further understanding of these themes in the context of this movie. Philosophy teaches people how to ask questions and think in a way that challenges many norms. In the Truman Show, for example, analyzing the film from a philosophical standpoint, one can see it for more than just a comedy. The sadness and harsh reality that Truman really has no control over his life can be seen as a tragedy. He has been deceived for the entirety of his life and is unsure what reality truly is. Everything he believes to be true and all the knowledge that he possess are false. He is a alienated, and unsure of his reality, which are themes explored by Buber, Descartes, Spinoza, and James.

The Truman Show is also an example of how reality is different depending on the perceptions of each individual. However, Truman has a special circumstance because his reality is purely synthetic. This can be compared to the philosophical theme presented in Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’. In this story, the prisoners trapped in the cave experience reality only as shadows of people outside passing by. Although this is not cohesive with the traditional concept of reality, the shadows the prisoners see are all they know. Like the prisoners and the shadows, all Truman has ever experienced is life on the island of Seahaven. He is not aware that his family and friends are actors, and that his community is a giant bubble.

While the execution and comedic aspects in the Truman Show create an entertaining movie, thinking about the philosophical implications are important. They help to show the severity of Truman’s situation, the confusion he faces, and a resentment he may feel for his isolation. The philosophers help us to view the film in a critical way to realize not only the sadness of Truman and Seahaven, but also to consider our own realities. The Truman Show shows us Truman’s difficult journey to try and discover true knowledge and find his own reality.

Katie Gallagher & Christina Dell’Orto

The Significance of Sylvia (Lauren Garland)

Sylvia is the actress who plays Lauren Garland, a girl from Truman’s high school. She was originally Truman’s love interest, but she was left in the background once Truman’s wife became his new love interest. Truman is still infatuated with Sylvia, which leads her to have a certain power over him. At one point in the film, the two characters are on a beach when Sylvia tries to tell Truman the truth about his reality. She took a risk and ultimately paid the price of being kicked off of the island, and consequently, the show. After her release from the show, she called into The Truman Show to speak to Christof, the director. She quickly made accusations against him for keeping Truman in a synthetic environment. Her advocacy for Truman is unique, as no one else mentioned in the movie has such strong feelings towards Truman’s release. Her advocacy for Truman to find out the truth faces strong opposition. In this sense, Sylvia’s ideas of what is good do not match the definition of good for the viewers of The Truman Show, along with the director, Christof. As William James writes in Pragmatism, “The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief, and good, too, for definite, assignable reasons” (James 37). Sylvia believes that telling Truman about the show is a good thing; therefore she makes statements to Truman that he perceives to be true. James goes on to explain that if good ideas weren’t true, then they would not exist to begin with. Due to the truth in Sylvia’s assertions about Truman’s false reality, they must consequently be good.

Sylvia embodies William James’ Pragmatism because her statements ultimately correspond with actual events. Truman never doubted that his reality wasn’t real. However, Sylvia saying “Listen to me: Everybody knows about you. Everybody knows everything you do. They’re pretending, Truman. Do you understand? Everybody’s pretending!” leads Truman to become more aware of his surroundings. He begins to investigate the reasoning behind their strange behaviors, only to find that what Sylvia said was true. This brings her statement, as well as James’ theory, full circle. Truman’s findings verified Sylvia’s statement, making him fully aware that his reality was not genuine.

When Sylvia says “Everything I’ve told you is the truth!”, she is alluding to Truman’s false reality. This relates to James’ ideas when he writes “ideas that tell us which of them to expect count as the true ideas in all this primary sphere of verification, and the pursuit of such ideas is a primary human duty” (James 93). Sylvia’s quest to expose the truth about Truman’s life is following the theories explained by James. James also writes “we live in a world of realities that can be infinitely useful or infinitely harmful” (James 93). Sylvia’s determinism can be seen as her trying to show Truman how his reality is infinitely harmful. He cannot be kept in a bubble all his life and not realize that everything in his life is synthetic. Sylvia is an influential character that should be revered for her efforts in trying to expose this important truth.

Christina Dell’Orto

Philosophical Theme: William James

William James’ notion of pragmatism is an evident theme throughout The Truman Show. Pragmatism is defined as the theory of meaning, often rooted in consequences (p. 29). James explains that an idea’s meaning is rooted in its consequences, and therefore, ideas must work. James continues to explain this theory by writing that an idea’s truth is contingent upon its usefulness. This can be related to The Truman Show because Truman believes in his reality due to its usefulness. All of his actions have real consequences, so he has no grounds to argue that his reality is synthetic. All of the claims made by the actors on the show convince Truman that his life is just as real as anyone else’s. The ideas portrayed to Truman work so well that Truman must believe they are true. Just as James explains, truth happens to an idea; it is made through events (James 92).

It is not until later on in the movie that Truman discovers his reality has been created through lies and deceit. This also reflects James’ theory of pragmatism. After Truman begins to notice the way his friends and family act, he calls into question the truth of the events. He follows around several of the actors to further investigate, and finds directors, fake elevators, and falling lights from the sky. This means that the idea of a fake reality must be true to Truman. The events caused Truman to assert truth to his assumptions.

James also writes about how there is no such thing as the ‘knower’ and the ‘known’. Instead, there is only the ‘perceiver’ and the ‘perceived’. Therefore, it is not as though Truman knows anything about his life, he only perceives the outside world around him. He could never have been certain about his reality, because that would imply that he knew everything about his world. It is as if the actors partaking in The Truman Show are the knowers and Truman is the sole perceiver. This corresponds to James’ Theory of Truth, which states that the knower only needs to discover the external world. However, this could only be true if one could observe nature from outside of his or her perspective. Truman does not have the ability to leave his own perception of the world to look beyond Seahaven Island. Due to this reality, Truman does not have the capacity to know anything for sure about his external world. Although he does not realize this problem, it becomes apparent once he notices changes in his environment.

In some ways, Truman embodies James’ description of an empiricist. An empiricist is characterized as a lover of facts, and one that starts with several small facts and builds them up into one main idea. For instance, Truman slowly finds several examples of his reality crumbling in front of his eyes. He notices his wife’s incredibly structured schedule, his inability to leave the island, and his dad being ‘resurrected’ from the dead. These small facts cause Truman to begin to doubt his reality. Sylvia had also planted a seed of doubt in his mind by trying to expose Christof and the television show in its entirety. This led Truman to build all of these facts together to reach the conclusion that he must leave Seahaven, for it is not a true form of reality.

Christina Dell’Orto