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The psychology in the Truman show
What are the similarities between Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the Truman show
Psychological perspective of the truman show
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The Truman Show has several comparisons to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Truman’s home, Seahaven, represents the prisoner’s cave and the water becomes Truman’s chains. The actors that play as Truman’s friends and family represent the shadows that appear on the wall. After attempting to leave, Truman spends a long time sitting in his car observing the world and eventually predicts what will occur, just as the men in the cave predict what will appear on the wall next. In the Allegory, the prisoner had to be dragged out kicking and screaming because he was comfortable with the lie. Christoph says the same thing about Truman as Plato says about the man; he is comfortable with his false reality. Plato stated that once knowledge is gained, no one
is happy with the ignorant world. Once Truman discovered that Seahaven was a false reality, he decides to leave as he is no longer happy with an ignorant world. Unlike the prisoners in the Allegory, Truman becomes more open minded and determined to discover the real world.
Dystopias in literature and other media serve as impactful warnings about the state of our current life and the possible future. Two examples of this are in the book Fahrenheit 451 and the movie The Truman Show. Both works show the harmful effects of advancing technology and the antisocial tendencies of a growing society. The protagonists of these stories are very similar also. Guy Montag and Truman Burbank are the only observant people in societies where it is the norm to turn a blind eye to the evils surrounding them. Fahrenheit 451 and The Truman Show present like messages in very unlike universes while giving a thought-provoking glimpse into the future of humanity.
In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and the song “The Cave,” by Mumford and Sons, they both treat the metaphor of a cave as a dark, bad, and evil antagonist that restricts you from seeing the truth and reaching your full potential. The cave can be seen as a permanent chain or an opportunity for change.
The Allegory of the Cave has many parallels with The Truman Show. Initially, Truman is trapped in his own “cave”; a film set or fictional island known as Seahaven. Truman’s journey or ascension into the real world and into knowledge is similar to that of Plato’s cave dweller. In this paper, I will discuss these similarities along with the very intent of both of these works whose purpose is for us to question our own reality.
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance” –George Bernard Shaw. The bodies politic in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and the Bible, the Commonwealth and Israelites, both have shallow beliefs and believe what they know to be true. The Platonic Prisoner, from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, and Moses, from the Book of Exodus in the Bible, both attempt to influence others with their newfound knowledge and wisdom because they feel the obligation to do so.They end up with different overall responses from their body politic as their relationships undergo change. For relationships to function, the bodies politic need to trust each other as well as courage. Relationship also need perseverance to last.
Some would describe life as a journey down a long, winding road. Others may describe it as a hike to the highest peak on a mountain. On the other hand, Plato, a philosopher from ancient Greece, described life like being chained up in a cave, forced to watch shadows pass on a stonewall. This was actually suggested over 2400 years ago in Plato’s Allegory of the cave found in Book VII of The Republic. The movie Room represented this theory that Plato had in that it followed the story of a woman and her son and their entrapment in a small shed they call Room. This movie shows countless examples of events that occur in their lives that portray Plato’s Allegory.
Through my study of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Saint Augustine’s “The Confessions”, I discovered that both text involve a journey of finding real truths before acquiring a faith. This suggests that faith and reason are compatible because one must embark on journey in which they are educated about real truths before they are able to acquire a faith.
The Truman Show closely parallels Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Initially, Truman is trapped in his own 'cave'; a film set or fictional island known as Seahaven. Truman?s journey or ascension into the real world and into knowledge is similar to that of Plato?s cave dweller.
Truman realizes the truth about what is real when he endeavours to discover what is beyond the world he lives in. Likewise, this idea is illustrated in Plato’s analogy of the cave. In the analogy, prisoners are chained to a wall, facing one direction and stripped of any other dimension or perspective. They perceive shadows on the wall of the cave, as they have done for all of their lives, that is all they know. They believe that these shadows are real and all that there is to reality for that is all they know, that reality is their truth. One prisoner breaks free from his bonds and notices that the shadows are mere imitations of the reality, but not the multi-dimensional reality itself. He sees that the shadows were caused by puppets behind him, and upon leaving the cave, sees the real things, which these shadow-causing puppets were meant to represent. The prisoner’s perspective of the world has now accepted new truths. But what meaning is now weaved into the prisoner’s perspect...
“The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 35). One of the most well known philosophers of all time, Socrates, believed that the purpose of human life was spiritual growth and the betterment of one’s soul, as well as seeking wisdom and truth. Huxley’s Brave New World, Plato’s “Allegory of The Cave” and “The Apology”, depict realities in which mankind is not allowed to think freely or seek enlightenment.
In director Peter Weir's The Truman Show, the audience is brought into the world of Truman Burbank, where every moment, act and conversation is staged. Every aspect of Truman's world is aware of the artificiality of this 'universe', everybody, except for Truman. Truman is at the centre of a world-wide television reality show which documents his every moment, twenty-four hours a day and he has absolutely no idea.
Like the people in the cave, Truman had never experienced what the world was really like. He only knew shadows, represented by actors in the film, that formed his conception of reality. However, unlike the cavemen in the allegory, Truman was alone and he walked out the ‘cave’ after he realized the figures and the events were an illusion, whereas in the allegory a single caveman out of a few left and had the realization in the real world. This seems more likely and connects better logically because the caveman had something to compare his experience of the real world, which allows him to naturally adjust and form a conclusion.
One of the major differences between the film and the novel is the depiction of the delusional image of reality. However, it still manages to bring forth the dystopian image of both their Utopian societies. In The Truman Show, life is a real life play in an environment that provides comfortable lifestyle and happiness at the cost of reality. The producer of The Truman Show, Christof states, “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented”. This message is the underlying theme in the story and as such, will foreshadow Truman’s acceptance of a delusional reality in the film. Meanwhile, in the film everyone except for Truman is acting and not living an authentic life. There is no sense of “real”; no real affinity, no secrecy, and no faith, all of which Truman is blindly unawar...
Comparing The Allegory of the Cave by Plato and The Truman Show, some similarities can be witnessed
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance” –George Bernard Shaw. The bodies politic in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and the Bible, the Commonwealth and Israelites, both have shallow beliefs and believe what they know to be true. The Platonic Prisoner, from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, and Moses, from the Book of Exodus in the Bible, both attempt to influence others with their newfound knowledge and wisdom because they feel the obligation to do so.They end up with different overall responses from their body politic as their relationships undergo change.
The Truman Show is a movie about a man whose whole life is a lie; his marriage, his friends, his job and everything that his every known. Ever since he was born, Truman has been film in a live television series without his knowledge. The media entertains its’ people by twisting Truman’s realism in which they give him false information about everything he knows and everything that has ever happen to him.