Quiz Show Documentary Analysis

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1. Give examples from the film where Truman understanding of reality is deliberately manipulated (using language, among other ways).

• Truman’s understanding of reality is deliberately manipulated, using language, by the producer of the show, Christof. One of the examples is when Truman’s colleague shows him the headline of the news that says “Seahaven Voted Planet’s Top Town.” This headline is used to convince Truman to stay in Seahaven and not go anywhere else. Another way to make Truman stay in Seahaven is the licence plate on all cars that captioned “a nice place to live.” Truman has seen this caption for his entire life, and he only knows Seahaven as the best place in the world. Another example is when Truman wants to book a ticket to Fiji. The producer puts up words on the wall of the ticketing office to terrify Truman. These words are examples of dangers, such as “terrorists”, “diseases”, and “street gangs.” Next to Truman, there …show more content…

Truman lives in Seahaven, without knowing that Seahaven is a dome in the middle of Hollywood. The denizens live in a cave with a small opening, and they cannot rotate their heads. Another parallel is the shadows of objects inside the Plato’s cave. In the film, these shadows are represented by the citizens of Seahaven. Truman never realizes that these people are actors and actresses. Therefore, he only knows that everyone is nice people. Same thing goes to the denizens. As Truman leaves Seahaven dome, he will not like the characteristics of real people as Plato explained. Plato believed that when the denizens are asked to name objects, they would “fancy that the shadows which (they) formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to (them)” (Plato). In Truman’s case, Truman will fancy the characteristics of fake people in Seahaven than the characteristics of real people living in real