Philosophical Theme: Buber

In The Truman Show, there was a theme of relationships.  For the director and the people in Truman’s world, all the relationships lie on the I-it side of the spectrum.  For Truman, on the other hand, he was living his normal life, so some of his relationships lay on the I-you side of the spectrum.  This theme lies at the bottom of the whole premise.  The difference between the relationships is what makes this world fake to those viewing it, but real to Truman.

The most obvious relationships to analyze or those of the extras.  The extras are just standing by.  They don’t see Truman as a person, they see him as a character of a television show intended to entertain the viewers.  This was evident in the characters of Meryl and Marlon.  They constantly lie to him because the audience wants to see how he reacts to them.  If they had really seen him as a full person, they would not have toyed with him in the way that they did.  In one case, that of Sylvia, Truman did seem to have a personal connection.  The reason he was so infatuated with this person was that she was able to see him as a person (I-you relationship) just as he saw in her.  The short relationship he had with her was real; everyone else saw him as an object.  The real relationship these two had is what drives Truman to find more of them, and ultimately to leave SeaHaven.

One of the most interesting cases to examine the relationship is that of the director, Christoff.  He was the mind behind the show controlling every aspect of Truman’s life.  Whenever any problem arose he was there to fix it, and he orchestrated all of Truman’s major life events.  He centered the whole show around trying to be able to see Truman as a complete human being, but what he didn’t realize is that he was unable to see Truman as a person.  Though he was able to control everything Truman encountered, he wasn’t able to control Truman’s mind.  The fear of water that he had fostered turned out not to be enough to keep him on the island.  Christoff was only able to see Truman as a compilation of responses as opposed to a true human being.  The climax of this relationship occurred when Truman was trying to escape his world by boat, and Christoff created a violent storm to attempt to stop Truman. This storm, though, was a hazard to Truman’s health.  However, Truman lived and Christoff tried to persuade Truman to stay in the dome by claiming that his life there was better than the outside world, but Truman didn’t want that.  He wanted to have real relationships with others both good and bad as opposed to the one way relationships he had in his life up until this point.

Lastly, Truman’s relationships through Buber are very interesting.  Under the dome he was a very nice person who tried to see everyone as their full persons.  However, they all sort of lacked a spark for him.  That spark was a returned true care for the other person.  The one person he had that spark with was Sylvia, and this relationship is what drove Truman to find out the truth about SeaHaven.  Thus, Buber’s I-you and I-it relationships are what drove The Truman Show to its climax.

Jack Skaggs

Philosophical Theme: Descartes

The Truman Show, although a highly entertaining movie, has many connections to philosophical themes. By creating this false sense of reality in Seahaven, the movie presents an interesting idea about perception and reality. René Descartes, a famous philosopher, began asking questions about what reality was in his book Meditations. In order to begin to understand his place in the world Descartes first needed to gain an understanding of knowledge and truth. The journey that Descartes must endure on his quest for understanding reality is parallel to Truman’s determination to discover the truth about his own so-called reality. Descartes’s themes of discovering knowledge and seeking truth to understand one’s actuality are present throughout the Truman Show.

In Meditations, among the early assertions the Descartes makes is that he does not know what reality is. Descartes is certain that he has allowed himself to be muddled or fooled into believing certain truths, but he decides to end this path of deception. Descartes chooses to abandon his past knowledge in order to discover what is really true. Among the first types of knowledge Descartes discards is a posteriori knowledge, or knowledge that is acquired through experience. He reasons that this type of knowledge is subject to bias and falsehood that occurs from his own mind, not from any truth. He believes that he must discard his opinions because they were derived from the senses, which are deceptive and untrustworthy.

Similarly to Descartes skepticism of his a posteriori knowledge, Truman begins to doubt what he believes as well. After seeing his father, who he knows to be dead, Truman is uncertain about his life and the people who are in it. Truman begins to test the citizens of Seahaven and comes to the conclusion that he sees “loose threads, false steps and notices many ‘slips of the tongue.’” He becomes skeptical of even his own wife and holds a knife to her in hopes of gaining certainty. He begins to feel as though there is a plot and “everyone seems to be in on it.” Although Truman does not question every aspect of his reality, like the physical objects and composition of it, he no longer believes anything to be genuine. Similar to Descartes, Truman begins to doubt everyone around him. Truman’s abandonment of his posterior knowledge and his skepticism for the people around him is largely similar to Descartes method of doubt in uncovering reality.

As well as having similar methods in discovering what is real, Descartes provides an explanation of why Truman was forced into this false reality. In Meditations, Descartes presents the idea that an evil genius, or “malevolent demon” exists in order to deceive humans. This description of the evil genius is similar to that of Christof, the director and creator of The Truman Show. Christof is the person who created the concept of the television show in which Truman is trapped. Christof chooses the characters, the weather, and the circumstances of Truman’s life and keeps him from reality. Christof deceives Truman into believing that Seahaven is his reality. Christof is successful in his deception for 30 years of Truman’s life. It is not until Truman, like Descartes, begins questioning the life he lives can he discover the truth.

While Seahaven and all who inhabit it are a falsity, the one truth that Truman holds onto is that he is real. While the circumstances of his life may be planned and plotted, Truman has a mind, he has thoughts and doubts, and he therefore exists. No matter what falsity he may have believed, Descartes confidently asserts that he is a thinking being. He is able to doubt and question his reality and therefore he must have a mind that can reason. Descartes famous statement, “I think, therefore I am,” becomes the Archimedean point, or the basis of knowledge. This point is one that is crucial for The Truman Show. For, no matter how uncertain Truman was about those around him, he never doubts the realness of himself. The Truman Show, and Truman’s discovery of reality have strong similarities to Descartes Meditations. Although reality is a difficult concept to understand, both Descartes and Truman do so by doubting, asking questions, rejecting past knowledge, and remembering their own existence.

Katie Gallagher