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

Director or Tyrant?

Truman: “Who are you?”

Christof: “I am the Creator…of a television show that gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions.

Truman: “Then who am I?”

Christof: “You’re the star.”

This pivotal conversation between Truman and Christof, demonstrates the power of rhetoric which enables a tyrant or in this case a “director” to assume full control over a person through a series of persuasive lies. Cristoff responds to Truman’s questions with alluring deceit, suggesting that people depend on The Truman Show for “hope and joy and inspiration” making it seem as though Christof and the creation of the show have positively enhanced the world, when in actuality, the show has effectively robbed the freedom, privacy and life of a man for the sole purpose of entertainment and high tv ratings. Cristoff also incorrectly labels Truman as a “star”, a word that normally implies positive connotations, instead of what he truly is: a hopeless victim of oppression and falsehoods. All Truman is searching for is the truth and is once again provided with misleading answers used to deter him from reality.

Charlotte Gelfand

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

Extreme Product Placement

Among the strangest aspects of Truman’s life as an unknowing reality television star is the constant product placement. From the knives they use, to the beer and hot chocolate they drink a character is constantly promoting products. Throughout the film, these updates highlight the falsity that is Truman’s life. The lack of control he has over his life extends even into small details such as the beer he drinks. While we realize this occurs to Truman because he is on television, it may be saying something about consumerism in general. Perhaps the product placement says something about those who buy the products. Do we really have control over what we buy? Or are we as consumers to corporations comparable with Truman to Christof?

Check out some this video of the hilariously, obvious product endorsements throughout the film!

Katie Gallagher

 

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

Character Analysis: Meryl Burbank

Meryl Burbank, Truman Burbank’s wife, played an important role in The Truman Show.  She started the movie as being Truman’s totally normal wife, but as the story progresses, she created the doubt that led to Truman’s ultimate discovery that his whole life he had been living a lie.  The problems arose from the fact that she was an actress trying to play the role of a real wife to Truman.  Her name was actually Hannah Gill, but, while in character, she was supposed to have a baby with Truman.  She also did things like blatantly advertise products for the show right in front of Truman which helped fuel his doubt.

While Meryl was pushing Truman towards the breaking point, she was also being pushed to her breaking point.  Meryl occasionally committed acts that made it seem like Truman was being controlled.  For instance, when Truman talked about leaving SeaHaven for Fiji, she immediately began to subtly discourage the idea.  She also randomly talked to the audience about products, and since Truman had no idea who she was talking to, it seemed fishy to Truman.  Ultimately, when Truman saw she had her fingers crossed in their wedding picture (implying the marriage was null), he hit the breaking point and began to test her to see if everything he knew was real.

Truman’s tests began when Meryl came home to find Truman sitting in his car.  He proceeded to predict everyone that was walking around their block in order and noted that it is curious that the same people would just go around the block continuously.  Truman then recklessly drove around SeaHaven attempting to get off the island with Meryl as she tried to talk him down.  The pressure began to build with Meryl as she couldn’t stand Truman and felt that her life was beginning to be at risk.  Her pressure came to a head when Truman took out the knife and continued to act wildly.  As he approached her, the fear grew, and when he touched her she shouted out, “Do Something.”  At this point, Marlon came in to help her out, which confirmed for Truman that he was indeed living a lie.

Meryl through this whole time was in a tough place.  She was living a lie as much as Truman because she had to be Truman’s wife in all facets.  Unfortunately for her, she knew it was all fake.  Buber can diagnose the overarching problem between her and Truman.  Meryl sees Truman from an I-it relationship standpoint, whereas Truman sees her with an I-you relationship.  What this means is that, for Meryl, Truman was just a way to get a paycheck.  She couldn’t see him as a person because she knew that everything and everyone he came into contact with was “controlled.”  In a world that was controlled, she had to deal with the one variable.  She also had to love someone who, in her mind, wasn’t real.  She had to carry out orders that would make her fake.  For instance, she was supposed to have a baby with Truman.  Why would she want to have a baby with someone she didn’t love?  The answer is she really didn’t, and her being taken off the show was helpful in that she is liberated from living the lie.  Her whole life, she was living in a world of I-It relationships.  It would be hard to live through a large portion of your life, and not be able to be attached to anything because you know it isn’t real.

Meryl’s character is eventually dismissed because she can’t handle the continued pressure of living a lie.  She was as shackled in that dome as Truman was.  She couldn’t start a life of her own when she was making a fake one with Truman.  After she left, we wonder whether the paycheck was worth it to live that long in Truman’s world, but we ultimately don’t know.

Jack Skaggs

Want to Learn More about Philosophy? Buy the Books!

If you are interested in learning more about these philosophers check out their books on Amazon. The philosophical analysis of The Truman Show has been connected to Meditations, Ethics, Pragmatism, I and Thou

Katie Gallagher

Character Quiz

Find out which character from The Truman Show you are! Take the quiz.

Katie Gallagher

Character Analysis: Christof

Christof (Ed Harris), the director and creator of The Truman Show, displays qualities of being both a genius and an exploiter. Christof creates the most successful television show in the world based on the concept of following the life of Truman Burbank from his birth to his death. He constructs an illusionary world for Truman to live in by creating a massive set and hiring actors. He produces and designs a reality for Truman to exist in. Christof, although a creative mastermind in television production, alienates Truman by treating him as a commodity rather than a person.

During an exclusive interview, Christof describes how Truman came to be the star of the acclaimed television show. He explains that of five babies, all from unwanted pregnancies, Truman was the first to be born. He was adopted by the television corporation and was immediately put in front of the cameras. The 30-year run on the television show generates a yearly income that is greater than the gross national product of some small countries. Christof has developed the use of product placement throughout the show to generate profits. The entire show that Christof has created is done so at the expense of Truman. Christof choose the life that Truman was forced to live, and has manipulated every aspect of his life for profits. Truman is treated as a commodity not as a human and Christof is to blame. Any and every person that Truman has ever known or loved, including his wife, parents, and best friends, was all plotted and controlled by Christof.

This way in which Christof treats Truman would be cause for serious concern to philosopher, Martin Buber. In Buber’s book “I and Thou,” he examines human life as it relates to society. Buber asserts that exteriority plays a larger role than other philosophers may have believed. He holds beliefs that humans are all connected to one another. Human’s are not self-sufficient beings, but rather require others to gain an understanding of him or herself. Buber also explains that there are two styles of comportment to other beings in the world, I-Thou and I-It. I-Thou is living one’s life through encounter. In other words, we begin a relationship with a being or object and see it as a whole. We can value this being for all that it is and has to offer. I-It, however, is the breakdown of a being into its sums. When this I-It relationship exists, the being is not seen for all that it is. Distinguishing these comportments is crucial for Buber’s idea known as “the sickness.” Buber believes that humans live in an age of alienation due to everyone treating others as I-It. People do not see each other for their whole beings, but rather only parts of who they are. Christof is a prime example of a human who has “the sickness” based on the way he treats Truman.

In an effort to continue his television show, Christof views Truman in the I-It style. Christsof is willing to force Truman into total alienation. He hires actors and actresses who are only ever able to see Truman in the I-It style. Truman is no more than an object that they trick and control simply to make a profit. Christof’s obsession to continue the show without considering its consequences to Truman proves Christof has only a partial view of Truman. Christof exploits Truman by treating him only as a commodity rather than a person.

Despite his ingenuity in television broadcasting, Christof is a part of “the sickness.” He embodies Buber’s notion of being a person who only looks at the I-It in life. Christof is a self-centered and selfish character. He does not view Truman and his entire being, as a human, but rather as a way to create success. Truman is alienated due to Christof’s selfishness. Christof is responsible for continuing “the sickness” that is alienation.

Katie Gallagher