Plato's Allegory In The Truman Show

In order to appreciate the second point of philosophical significance to the movie, we need to consider an important transition that occurs in the story. Through a series of mistakes made by Christof’s production team, Truman comes to suspect that something is wrong with his understanding of the world. The further he digs, the more suspicious he becomes until, finally, he is certain that he is being deceived, though he does not yet know why. Truman therefore resolves to escape from the community of Sea Haven. The escape that he plans involves ingenuity and bravery. For he must, in the first place, accept that almost all of his previous beliefs about himself, his world, and the people around him are false. Secondly, in leaving this community,

His film is loaded with the same ideas found in ancient philosophy. The Truman Show is about deceiving appearances, absolute control, and the search for truth, which are all major themes in philosophy. The film is remarkably similar to Plato's allegory of the cave. In his allegory of the cave, Plato asks the reader to imagine humans living in a dark cave, chained so they can only look directly at the cave wall. Behind them is a fire that casts shadows on that wall. Between the prisoners and the fire is a path on which people are carrying various artifacts in different shapes. These artifacts cast shadows on the wall. The prisoners, since all they can see are the shadows, accept these shadows as the actual objects. The shadows are the only truth they know. Plato then asks us to imagine what would happen if one of the prisoners were to be set free. He hypothesizes that a freed prisoner would be look toward the light and be dazzled and overwhelmed. Plato also believes it would be a strange and painful journey from the darkness of the ignorance in the cave to the light of enlightenment. Truman Burbank is totally oblivious to the realities of his life. He does not know that his life is being filmed and broadcast all over the world all day and every day. He is unaware that everything, from conversations with his friends to the weather, in his life is controlled. Truman is metaphorically chained up in the cave seeing shadows and believing they are the truth. Every person involved in Truman's life is an actor following a script. They are the shadows Truman sees on the wall. These shadows are controlled and manipulated by the producer of The Truman Show, Christof, who is walking along the path in front of the fire. The actors are all Christof "s puppets, and he uses them to deceive and control Truman. As we can see this film has combined elements from all aspects of what we have learned in this class. In many