Ignorance In The Truman Show, Directed By Peter Weir

Many movies and television series depict a world of perfection. More specifically, in The Truman Show directed by Peter Weir, Truman lives a perfect life with no problems or challenges to face. Then Truman realizes that his perfect world isn't as perfect as he first thought and he becomes curious. He wants to find out what is really going on with his ideal world and if it is perfect after all. In the movie, The Truman Show, Weir depicts Truman as an ignorant character through Truman’s supposedly utopian society, demonstrating that when one learns of one’s ignorance to society’s problems, one must confront these issues in order to comprehend how these issues affect society.

Weir uses elements of light and darkness in Truman’s “perfect” world to signify Truman’s ignorance of the truth, suggesting that one must learn not

to be ignorant of one’s surroundings. One prop Weir uses is when the light falls from the sky (Weir). The light coincidentally falls in a shadow. The light falling into the shadow signifies that Truman is oblivious to the truth and is about to find out more about it, the light. His life was considerably “perfect” until the stage light fell. This peculiar event caught Truman off guard and caused him to question reality. One can conclude that Truman starts to realize something is off and that he must not be ignorant in order to figure out the truth.
With the actors in “The Truman Show” unintentionally revealing the truth to Truman, Weir is able to demonstrate that in order to be freed from ignorance, one must first confront the problems at hand by exploring them in depth.

One of the actors, Lauren’s father, explains that Lauren and her family are going to move to Fiji (Weir). From this information, Truman draws the conclusion that in order to escape his perfect reality he must go explore the ocean. Truman realizes that his life is changing and that he must overcome his fear of the ocean. He can escape by getting more information before he can become educated about the truth. Weir demonstrates that Truman is trying to confront the problems that the truth creates when Truman takes Meryl hostage. During a hostage situation, Meryl screams for the creators to do something about Truman (Weir). Truman constantly asks Meryl who she is talking to leads one to believe that Truman is in the midst of trying to figure out why his life is changing and that his world is not so perfect anymore. This leads Truman to think about society and his urge to explore more about his

surroundings.
Through Truman’s constant need to explore, Weir shows that one who does not truly understand one’s surroundings may question the deeper meaning of one’s society in order to truly comprehend how this affects one’s society and oneself. In The Truman Show, Weir exposes the truth to Truman by means of communication accident with the car radio on his way to work. The people on the other end of the radio are announcing his every move (Weir). As time goes by, Truman grows more and more curious. His level of interest continues to grow because of all of the past events that have shaped his current condition. These events affect him because he wants to figure out the truth and the reason his life changes all of a sudden. Truman becomes confused when the people on the other end of the radio are repeating all of his moves. This demonstrates Truman’s investigative nature because afterward, Truman is even more curious than before. Truman’s curiosity, eventually, turns into a belief of conspiracy. The ruse is that Truman is not living in a perfect society and that people are watching every move he makes. Truman’s belief in this conspiracy becomes more evident towards the end of the film. In the end, Truman is correct about the conspiracy, the conspiracy that he is not living in a perfect world and people are constantly watching him, but he could not bring himself to comprehend these beliefs. His curiosity becomes even more prevalent, almost violent, when Truman lures Meryl into the car, he then shows her that the same cars and citizens pass every half an hour (Weir). It is now evident that Truman is catching on to the idea that he is living in a false reality. This is the moment when he realizes that his society is fake and must explore a way to escape it. Overall, this leads one to infer that Truman’s constant need to explore, is the reason he escapes his utopian prison and changes his perspective on reality.
In the film, The Truman Show, Weir uses the utopian society of Seahaven to introduce Truman as a character that gradually learns of his blindness which illustrates that when one is educated about one’s society’s issues, one must face these problems in order to acknowledge the effect these problems have on society.