Entry 12: 2 Paragraphs towards P3 on TS

At times,we as human beings may get the feeling that there is nothing more to this world than pain and suffering.Some people even say that suffering is the only reason we are born into this world,

At times,we as human beings may get the feeling that there is nothing more to this world than pain and suffering.Some people even say that suffering is the only reason we are born into this world,which is why we cry when we come out of our mother's womb.In some ocassions,people grow up in bad environments surrounded by bad influences,or maybe are raised by parents who make their lives as miserable as possible.The worst part of this whole thing is the fact that those who grow up in these kind of situations either don't realize it,or choose not to do anything to change their lifestyles.It's bad enough to grow up in abusive and manipulative situations,but it's so much worse when someone is forced to experience hardships that they didn't ask for in the first place;and didn't do anything to deserve them.In the film,''The Truman Show'',Truman Burbank is placed in a situation that he is completely unaware of,so he has no control over his surroundings and he can't alter his situation in any way.His entire life has been transformed into a television show since the day he was born.His life has been scripted,which is exactly what leads him to question whether or not everything around him was ever real.At the very end of the film,Christof tries to prevent Truman from leaving,so he tells him that the real world is not any different than the world he created for him.However,considering that Truman has suffered his whole life,he has nothing to lose if he decides to escape from the world he is currently living in.When someone grows up in a world that is designed to trick them into believing that their surroundings are real when in reality they are not,they can't be blamed for wanting to change their lives for the better.

It is completely unfair to take control of a person's life,and make them suffer simply to amuse others.Ever since the day of his birth,Truman has had to face obstacles that were put in his path by Christof just to entertain the people that watched ''The Truman Show'' worldwide.For example,as a boy Truman ''lost'' his father at sea,which Christof purposely did to harm him emotionally and cause him to develop thalassophobia.Christof also hurt Truman by giving him fake friends,fake neighbors,and by separting him from his true love,Sylvia(who was also known as Lauren).Christof and his crew selfishly tortured Truman to bring entertainment to people around the world,without taking into consideration how their actions affected him both physically and emotionally.

Sea voyages are metaphors of life itself, where man has to adjust to, or struggle against, the over powering forces of nature and destiny, and bravely or creatively make use of his own physical and emotional resources to survive them; only thus can he realize his true self and feel that life has been worth living (Brearly and Sabbadini pg. 155). Truman had to overpower the forces of this unrealistic life he was living. He had to make use of this true inner self in order to have the courage to escape. To be released into a life where he believes it will be worth living and not handed to him on a silver platter. He had to adjust to this life where he wasn't truly happy. The people who he believed meant something to him and cared for him were all simply actors.

There are many moments in life where we claim to be happy where we are in life. However it may be that it takes a whole lifetime to realize where you are suppose to be. For example, fear can become an obstacle, but how will you know what is real or not if you don't overcome it. Will it only keep you stuck and make you feel that there is nothing really worthy in your life? As people we can have all we want but sometimes we may feel empty. We realize that somehow it could have meant more but only if you could know how. You feel lost and cluesless. Who are you really? Has your personality and joy been all an act to put on for others because of fear to show people who you really are?

I think Truman represents every human being's search for truth. For his whole life Truman has been fed lies. Everything from his wife to the building around him have been fake. I believe that as humans we come to a point where we question the world around us and ask what is real and what is fake? When we do seek to find the truth, however, we do not always get the answers we want. We are faced with the many troubles of the world when we search for the truth. Such troubles are famine, crime, war and many other horrible things that are part of our reality.

Truman's life in Seahaven is shielded from these things. So while he is faced with many barriers in his quest for the truth, will the truth actually enlighten him or bring closure or satisfaction to his life? In our search for truth, the answers we find often bring up other questions. So basically the search for truth will never end. Is this really how we want to spend our lives? Searching for something we may never find, or is a shielded, no questions asked life likeTruman's ideal?

Truth is a very important concept in our everyday lives. If you look up the word truth in the dictionary the first definition is a contradiction. The definition of truth is conformity to fact or actuality, a statement proven to be or accepted as true. Truman Burbank as the "True Man" is trying to pursue truth. But what is the truth? The dictionary says it is what we choose to believe and accept. Truman does not necessarily want the truth, he wants to know what is real and not scripted. Truman is searching for sincerity and integrity. Truman has been lied to his entire life. He has been surrounded by fake people all his life. This is why he has such a strong desire to figure out what reality is. He wants to find out what is real in his life, what the world has to offer, and what it is like to live somewhere where people say, feel and think what is in their head and not in a script.
Truman does not know what is real in his life. Since the day he was born he was adopted by a huge corporation. He was taught to believe whatever happens around him is real. He was raised by actors and all his friends were actors. Truman Burbank didn't live a true life. But honestly who does life a real true life? Do we really know what is real? Reality is what we believe so is anything ever really real? Truman thought for 30 years that everything around him was real, yet it was all fake. To think my life could not be real, and everything could be a lie. It is a scary thing and that is why Truman is seeking the truth because he does not feel his life is real. He is definitely being lied to and wants to live a true life. He is tired of doing the same routine everyday. Everyday Truman wakes up goes to the bathroom, gets yelled at by his wife, picks up a newspaper, goes to work, and then goes home. He starts to get sick and tired of his daily routine and feels there is something people are hiding from him about his life.

There are times in our life when we think about if everything happening around us is true or false. Truman did not start to question about his life until those strange things happened to him. The day when the radio was broadcasting exactly what he was doing, the day when he saw a man on the streets that he thought was his father, and the time when he rain was only pouring on him. After what has occurred, Truman starts to observe the world around him. Truman’s life is pretty much complete in a way with what he owns, such as his car, house, wife, and job. However, he did not completely accept his fate because he is still looking for Sylvia, his true love.

One person that could be a symbol to Truman’s search for Truth is Sylvia Garland. Sylvia plays an important role because the first sign the movie shows was Truman looking for parts of a face in magazines in order to put together a face. Later on, we realize that the face he was trying to put together is Sylvia’s. It seems that nothing could stop Truman from looking for his true love, Sylvia. Another symbol that represents Truman’s search for Truth is a place called Fiji. Truman wants to go to Fiji to look for Sylvia. However, there are always things that prevent Truman from leaving Seahaven. Even in the end, Truman chooses to leave the world that Christof created for him to find his true world.

The Truman Show is a movie about a man named Truman whose whole life has been fabricated by the creator of a television show. Basically, Truman has been the star of a television show that millions of people have been watching since his birth. And, he has no idea until his 30th birthday. As humans, we are innately curious. We have a need to know, a need to explore, and a need to ask questions. In the end, we hope that our curiosity will lead us to knowledge. And, we cannot know something that is not real. In other words, Truman spent his whole life not knowing anything. How could he if everything was fake? The Truman Show can be interpreted as mankind’s search for truth.

Before the realization that he lacked knowledge, Truman’s life was perfect, perhaps, too perfect. He had a typical job as an insurance salesman. He owned a beautiful home in Seahaven. And, he had a typical, yet somewhat odd suburban wife. And just like Truman, we all start off ignorant. We are unaware of the truth and our life is a journey in finding that ever-elusive truth. During an interview, Christof, the creator of the show, declared that “we accept the reality of the world with which we are presented”. And, this is confirmed by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave from his dialogue The Republic. It tells the story of prisoners who are chained inside of a cave facing a wall. Behind them, there is a bridge and a fire. Sometimes, people pass by with objects that cast shadows upon the wall. And, the prisoners, who have been chained for their whole life, do not understand the concept of a shadow. So, they accept the shadows as reality, since that is what they are presented.

The film “The Truman Show” is essentially a painful search for a painful truth. Truman’s life on Seahaven Island, as we know, is artificial. However, it is a safe community that adequately provides for all of Truman’s basic human needs with a normal desk job that his best friend would “kill for.” In contrast, to Truman, this safety and closed off space is something he does not care for. Adventure and ultimately truth are what he long for. Although some find “ignorance is bliss,” Truman has a natural drive to explore, so when he felt that something was wrong, he immediately took on that task of exploration without taking into consideration what that truth would do to him.
Truth is not always easy to neither find nor easily accept. Truman had to go through a hurtful experience in order to find the truth about his world’s lack of authenticity. His suspicions and supposedly paranoia begins to rise when he encounters various incidences, for example, the radio that describes his every path to work, the rain that follows where ever he moves, and the meeting with his supposedly dead father. Truman is now feeling as if he is losing his mind because all of a sudden, he feels that the world is revolving around him and him alone. Therefore, because of his adventurer mentality, he then goes out of his daily routine of an insurance salesman to see what happens in this world of his and test his, so far, vague suspicious feelings. He decides to go into a random grocery store and claps obnoxiously. No one responds or even looks. He runs across the street and with a raised hand, all cars stop abruptly. Finally, Truman’s paranoia has become true after putting at the pieces together. The pain of confirming the truth was difficult but not so to stop him from unraveling his false world entirely to the point of physically hitting the plasterboard sky of Christof’s world. Truman knew he had to leave this artificial place and go where “you can’t go any farther without coming back” and where his true love Sylvia is supposedly at. He knows that those are the only truths in his entire life by the end of the film, therefore, he decided to accept that truth by walking into reality.

Part of human nature is to become curious about one's true identity. In the film "The Truman Show", Truman Burbank is the star of a popular reality show that is focused on his oblivion to the fake environment constructed around him. Unaware that his entire life as been broadcasted worldwide, Truman searches for his true identity after overbearing feelings of discontent with his life. As the audience watches Truman’s physical and mental ordeal, we realize his struggle parallels the few brave enough in the current generation. Already living in a comfortable life constructed by consumer society, people now don’t attempt to go through the struggle of searching for their “true” identity. Taking what consumer society has projected upon them; people simply accept it and move on with their lives. But for those in discontent with the identity given to them, they will have to undergo a physically and mentally challenging tribulation in order to find truth.
People, who do search for their true identity, risk their general welfare. The process becomes like a test on people’s physical and mental endurance. Truman Banks lives in an environment created by Christoph where he can live comfortably and contently. Paralleling reality, people are enabled by consumer society to live in an environment where their basic human needs are met comfortably. Thus, when people like Truman spend their lives in these purposely-constructed realities, their identities become purposely crafted as well. These identities are constructed purposely to serve the creator’s needs. So in Truman’s case, Christoph crafts an identity for Truman to entertain the general public’s entertainment. In reality, corporations crafts identities for the general population to fuel their greed. In both cases, people are manipulated to benefit those in control. Thus, when Truman becomes uneasy with signs of the unauthentic world around him, he takes a leap of faith and rebels against the rules of society in search for truth. Truman begins to show signs of erratic behavior, paranoia, physical distress, and self-doubt. Paralleling reality, people have to clear their lives of polluted consumer ideals. But to do that in a world so heavily permeated by consumerism, people have to forgo social norms and avoid the influence of popular culture. When people then put themselves in a situation where they become outcasts of society, they begin to exhibit mental and physical distress like Truman’s. Thus, there are few in the world that are brave and determined enough to find their naturally true identity that is free of consumer society influence.

"The Truman Show", I believe, parallels the college experience in that there was a different world at home. As we move out of the house, we find truth of certain things and grow from our experiences. Truman begins to break out of his shell, or his routine. He was afraid of water , but as he finds out that the accident with his father was a lie, he becomes brave. We grow up believing what our parents taught us, even if it wasn't true. College allows us to explore the world for ourselves without the influence of our parents. We break from our shells as Truman does from Christof's creation.
R. Douglas Geivett says, "The quest for knowledge is stimulated by curiosity" (pg. 148). We decide to break out of our regular routines because we're curious as to what is out there that we don't know about. As we figure new things out, our knowledge expands. It's almost as if we are reborn. As infants, we look around, touch things, and sometimes even taste things to know more. Going to college is like being reborn; leaving Seahaven is like being reborn. Growing up and finding truth go hand in hand.

There comes a time in everyone's life when we feel the need to search out the truth in the realities we have grown up with. There comes a time when we question our own existence and wonder about the world around us, and what is real and what is not. Truman Burbank has wondered about the world around him ever since the love of his life Sylvia was taken to Fiji. Fiji represents truth and the outside world although Truman does not yet know this. Fiji is his only escape and little by little he starts realizing that the truth he has always known is not really the truth at all. We all search for a portion of the truth but just how safe and secure is it for us to search for that so called truth we need.
To go out and try and find the truth can be dangerous and scary. You have to give up on everything you've ever known and thought was reality in order to search for something that might not even be there. I believe that Truman represents the average person in search for the truth about life. We go through periods of time when we wonder if the world revolves around us, or if we're just insignificant tiny grains of sands. How important are we really to this world, and what does the world all mean?

In his 1998 film, The Truman Show, Peter Weir tells the story of a man, Truman Burbank, who has been “legally adopted by a corporation” in order to create a massive television production documenting his entire life. Truman gradually learns—and with him the audience—that his entire life has been constructed by the dangerous-yet-gentle Christof, director of The Truman Show. Due to his highly controlled life, Truman has developed severe issues tied to identity and self. Truman slowly uncovers what he believes to be a massive conspiracy in his life. During that process, Truman faces serious questions about his friends, family, and history. On his journey, Truman learns not to “accept the reality of the world with which we are presented” and see his world for what it is. On the way, Truman discovers his craving for authenticity, and eventually trades his artificial (if pleasant) life for a real (if uncertain) one by leaving the set.

Truman's journey for truth takes him to the literal end of his world, where all that greets him are a small platform and a door labeled “exit”. On his way there, Truman stumbles into the horrible truth that all of the most important people in his life are actors. Not only is his best friend paid to help keep him under control, but Truman's wife sees the show as a “noble lifestyle”, and his mother isn't his real mother. For, though his ultimate question is one of philosophy, Truman's quest is also one of growth and independence. As he seeks to learn the truth, Truman Burbank also seeks to exercise greater control in his own life. Truman has grown tired of his cookie-cutter life, and to learn what is real, he faces a massive storm (constructed by the show's producers to reign him in) and the question of safety vs liberty. In the end he chooses liberty, but it is doubtful that even a month before he would have done the same.

The Truman Show reveals a complex issue that is more than just finding oneself. The Truman Show represents reality, it is the life we are living right now. In one sense, it is very abstract, it represents finding the meaning of life. On the other hand this movie reveals the problems with consumerism. The main character, Truman....(PlOt Summary)....
Truman, in fact, means true man. Throught this film there are many representations and meaningful events that are prevalent. For example, ...(names & meaning)... There is a paradigm to Trumans world as well as ours. It's not so different to our lives except that many of us are preocupied in our routined lives to look at the bigger image.

The Truman Show reveals a complex issue that is more than just finding oneself. The Truman Show represents reality, it is the life we are living right now. In one sense, it is very abstract, it represents finding the meaning of life. On the other hand this movie reveals the problems with consumerism. The main character, Truman....(PlOt Summary)....
Truman, in fact, means true man. Throught this film there are many representations and meaningful events that are prevalent. For example, ...(names & meaning)... There is a paradigm to Trumans world as well as ours. It's not so different to our lives except that many of us are preocupied in our routined lives to look at the bigger image.

The Truman Show reveals a complex issue that is more than just finding oneself. The Truman Show represents reality, it is the life we are living right now. In one sense, it is very abstract, it represents finding the meaning of life. On the other hand this movie reveals the problems with consumerism. The main character, Truman....(PlOt Summary)....
Truman, in fact, means true man. Throught this film there are many representations and meaningful events that are prevalent. For example, ...(names & meaning)... There is a paradigm to Trumans world as well as ours. It's not so different to our lives except that many of us are preocupied in our routined lives to look at the bigger image.