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Examples Of Plato's Allegory In The Truman Show

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The Truman Show is a film directed by Peter Weir that depicts Truman Burbank as the unsuspecting star of a reality television show, which is broadcasted nonstop around the world. Truman was one of six unwanted infants from birth, and he was chosen by Christoff, director of the show, in order to star in the famous reality television show portraying his everyday life. Truman lives on the island of Seahaven, but he doesn’t know that the island is an absolute fabrication. An immense set surrounded by a protective dome is used to produce the most sophisticated imagery and effects to imitate the weather of the real world. Also, there are a plethora of actors in the film who do their best in order to keep Truman in the cave, or fake world. However, as the film progresses, Truman begins to realize that he is not in the real world, but in a world where he is the center of attention. In this essay, Plato’s allegory of the cave and theory of forms will be used to discern whether or not Truman …show more content…

As the film progresses, it is shown that Truman is afraid of water because his father was killed in a boating accident. Water acts as a chain that keeps Truman from exploring the world. However, Truman broke the chain when he took the boat out on the water, and he became the philosopher, or free prisoner. At the end of the film, Truman walks up the steps and leaves the show in order to experience the real world. According to Plato’s theory of forms, ideas go beyond the physical world and once they are thought of, they can’t be undone. Therefore, it is only better for Truman to leave the show if he is only going to pursue the truth through ideals, such as goodness, love, and beauty. However, if he leaves and doesn’t pursue these ideals then he is still living in a cave—a much larger

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In both of the cases, the author and the director used to method of symbolism to help them get their purpose across to the readers. Many objects in both of the stories were given a meaning and an assumed understanding of what it is symbolising. Shadows is something that is presented in both of the cases, in The Allegory of the Cave there were objects that walked past the fire behind the prisoners, which gave out shadows to the prisoners to see. The shadows represented the truth that was not allowed to be seen by the prisoners but was able to get a small sense of what it is. In The Truman Show, there was a character who played the role of the shadow for Truman.

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892 Words | 4 Pages

Dystopian city, on the contrary, is a darker place where crime rises and society becomes dehumanized. The first movie, The Truman show, had all the qualities of a utopian city. Truman Burbank, the main actor, lived in a coastal city called Utopia. The city was built for him since his birth, even the people who lived in the city were actors without Truman knowing it. A childhood trauma left Truman frightened of sailing

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840 Words | 4 Pages

For Plato, education is a “turning around” of the soul (Plato, 248). The Truman Show is a modern movie with a similar plot directed and written by Peter Weir. In these stories, humans are visible in an alternate reality that is displayed to them unwillingly. There are countless philosophical concepts and arguments that take place in The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave differs with visual images, plot elements, storyline, and dialogue and

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776 Words | 4 Pages

This causes Truman to get out of his car andrun around the power plant. However, he is stopped by a crew of workers. In the beginning of the novel Truman is very clueless when odd events happen. Truman does not know what is going on when he sees the stage light fall from the sky. He thinks that these events are just random things that are happening and he has no clue that he is living in a fake world.

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1373 Words | 6 Pages

However, one prisoner is released and forced out into the reality, allowing the reader to understand that the world one sees and experiences is not the reality, but rather an illusion. Similarly, in The Truman Show by Andrew Niccol, Truman Bank has been growing up in Seahaven Island, a place created just for him to live in for a television show that is all about him. Throughout the film, Truman realizes that Seahaven is not the real world, and viewers see his journey to get out of this illusion, and into reality outside the false world. Both The Allegory of the Cave and The Truman Show prove that the physical world is an illusion that prevents one from discovering reality. The concept of illusion versus reality is evident in both works through similarities in plot, similarities in symbolism, and differences in character.

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1426 Words | 6 Pages

In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Truman Show directed by Peter Weir, the use of identity and popular culture leads to the idea that one cannot overcome adversity within themselves or their environment if there are outside forces interfering with the goals they want to achieve. The idea of identity is developed through Truman Show by Weir and Brave New World by Huxley through depicting an inner struggle between the characters and the goals that they want to achieve. Identity leads to the understanding that individuality is not promoted in a society that wants to fulfill its own agenda. In the Truman Show, Truman Burbank is kept away from his sense of curiosity and adventure by preventing him from leaving the artificial island that he

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1339 Words | 6 Pages

The Truman Show displays this concept that one’s reality may just be a small subset of the what the truth really entails. Truman, a seemingly normal man, lives his perfect life without worry, but when looking at the bigger picture, his world does not seem so perfect. Truman’s utopian environment is simply a staged production of what a perfect life would look like. At the wheel of this entertaining spectacle is Christof, the mastermind behind “The Truman Show”. Feeling the stress of managing a television show of such high caliber, Christof drives himself and Truman to the brink of insanity which, consequently, causes them

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629 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the movie, Truman begins to realize that the whole world revolves around him and how the producers of the show have created his reality, thus developing his sociological imagination. To start,

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314 Words | 2 Pages

The film “The Truman Show” is a reality TV show. It is about a man named Truman Burbank who’s been adopted by a television company. He is a typical guy but is living in a set up American Suburb known as Seahaven near Chicago. What he doesn’t know is that everything in his life is a part of a massive TV set and his every move is being captured by cameras and being watched by millions of viewers since his birth.” The Truman Show” is produced (the creator)

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

Since Truman in oblivious to the existence of his reality, he is experiencing existentialism. In The Truman show, director Peter Weir, expresses existentialism by showing us how Truman Burbank experiences isolation, the urge of craving

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755 Words | 4 Pages

So I thought, why would we still want Freedom anymore. That was when I realized, the best way to live life, is to live in detainment. The world that Truman lives in a is a very simple world, because it was a world with very limited freedom. Truman was always being

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948 Words | 4 Pages

As Truman goes in search of his knowledge by exploring the world first by sea, and undergoes some bumpy seas and turbulence, but he still manages to reach the end of the “sea,” which is really just the end of the stage (The Truman Show?). As Truman approaches the end of the sea he manages to hit a wall, and after that he examines it and he comes across a set of stairs and he follows them and they lead to an exit door, at this point Christof comes over the speaker and he proves that there is a creator (God) and that he does truly in fact exist. Once Truman proves that God exists he then proves that there is a world, and it does

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764 Words | 4 Pages

The Truman show The life of Truman Burbank is founded on a enormous secret. He is the unwitting and unsuspecting main character of a reality television show named The Truman show. Ever since the day Truman was born has a TV company broadcasted his every move. Truman 's whole life has taken place in a tremendous dome and everybody in his surrounding are hired actors. During his thirtieth year does the film begin and he recognises occurrences that all appears to be centred on him.

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610 Words | 3 Pages

The Truman show is a movie that’s plot is based off the republic by Plato, written in 360 B.C.E. The Truman show is about a man who’s lived his entire life in a fictional town that is actually a TV show set. He does not know that his life is a TV show but he starts to learn the truth throughout the movie. Although Peter Weir reuses the idea of a cave were stuck in and that the truth is hard to realize from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, the transformation of the truth being much more than what we perceive and getting yourself out of your cave ultimately leads to a deeper truth that is as philosophically compelling. As Plato writes, “Human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood” meaning that literally, people are trapped in a cave. This is directly used the Truman show, as the TV show set is the cave that Truman in chained in.

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535 Words | 3 Pages

The second example is a book titled Frindle in which one boy invents the word “frindle” to describe a pencil. At first, he is seen as crazy and his new word has no meaning but as the book progresses and others buy into it, frindle becomes pencil. This same idea parallels the show—everyone needs to buy into the show in order for it to be successful. Cristof tells his viewing audience that the reason why Truman has never figured out the premise of the show is because, “We accept the reality which with we are presented.” Truman begins to realize the truth about his life when he becomes aware of the simulacra informing his daily life: the “radio” narrates his whereabouts; the “elevator” has no backing on it because it is a control room; and the “rain” follows him on the

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