Similarities Between The Truman Show And The Allegory Of The Cave

In 400 B.C.E. Plato created the enlightening philosophical work the “Allegory of the Cave” in which the Greek philosopher emphasizes the need to question the basis of human existence. He said seeing your senses is not enough. The film “The Truman show, starring Jim Carey, incorporates the whole idea of the Allegory of the Cave and raises similar concerns. They both deal with the idea that humans assume that where ever they find themselves is the real world and whatever life presents them is reality. The Truman Show and The Allegory of the Cave both address psychological reality and the will to question one’s intuition and understanding

The “Allegory of the Cave” creates a time when prisoners are given the opportunity to question their understanding

of their current realities. The theory portrays the image of people tied down in a cave where they are only able to see the shadows of objects and people as they walk past the opening of the cave where a fire is burning. Eventually the prisoners’ start to recognize these shadows and give them different names. The prisoners only know as much as the captors tell them. One day one of the prisoners is unchained and taken into the light of the real world. He is unable to see anything at first because the light is blinding him. Eventually his eyes gradually adjusted and he is able to focus on the light. He is able to see the images more clearly and at first does not believe what he is seeing. He is subjected to reality and sees the world for how it should be. Eventually, he accepts that the enlightened world is reality and begins questioning his past situation. The prisoner Is unable to go back to his world after obtaining knowledge of a new reality. After this he finds it impossible to conform back to his old world inside the cave. This highlights Plato’s idea that knowledge trumps ignorance.
In the film The Truman Show, Truman, the main character, beings to address his psychological reality through a series of uncovering events.

Truman is pictured in an alternate reality created by a director with the help of hundreds of others. He is under constant surveillance and broadcasted to viewers around the world. He never questions anything because he is satisfied with his life. He does not think there could be a bigger world outside of his small island town of Seahaven. He has no conception or understanding of his place in the world and thus his true identity. The director was the fire shining the light outside the cave because he dictates Truman’s life and what he sees. Truman was a prisoner in the cave of Seahaven, the small town the show took place in. He only knew what he was being told to believe and when he would try to look past the enclosure of the inside world, the director would come up with curve balls to enable him from discovering the truth. As the movie progresses, we see that Truman is afraid of the water. At first, we don’t understand why, but it is later revealed that it is because his father “died” in a storm while they were on the boat when he was young. The directors falsely promoted fear in him in the hopes of discouraging Truman to leave the island of Seahaven. This fear acts as the chains to the inside of the cave. Those chains have stopped him from trying to leave the island and uncover the truth to his psychological

reality.
To furthermore chain him to Seahaven, everyone and everything in his life is a lie. All the people in the town and all those that he cares for and loves are mere shadows of the real world. He was adopted by the production company in order to create the show and supply entertainment twenty-four seven for millions of viewers around the world. Everyone knew Truman was being deprived of reality, although a lot of them still loved watching him grow up. Others however, wanted to reveal the truth to him. For example, one girl he fell in love with on the show started telling him that his life was not real and he was on TV. Eventually she was taken away by her “father” in order to keep his true life hidden. He did not understand and was left trying to put together the pieces. She represents the real objects that the prisoners see for the first time after leaving the cave. This sparks curiosity in him, causing him to try and decipher the meaning of what she said. He spends the rest of the movie searching for her and this is what eventually allows him to break the chains.
Throughout the film he starts to recognize certain events that follow the trend that his life is not real. For example, one day he is walking and sees his dad. He starts to approach him, but the producers signaled two random people to push him into a bus while others created a barrier in front of him. This resulted in him not being able to talk to his dad. After the realization that he was not going to see his dad again, he ponders in curiosity of what is going on. He confines in his best friend, hoping to seek some truth of what is going on. But just like everybody else he is just a shadow in Truman’s cave and tells Truman he is crazy. Therefore, creating the idea in Truman’s mind that he is crazy and this is reality. This portrays the “Allegory of the Cave’s” idea that we only believe what we are told. Truman has to conform to the life that these actors have created for him and when he tries to question it he only gets shot down. Ultimately forcing him to continue with this life of shadows.
As the movie progresses more events shine the light on these hidden shadows and reveal the truth to Truman. For example, one day he tries to get on an elevator in a nice building and misses it. The doors reopen for him to get on the next one and he gets a glimpse of the hidden truth. Different people try to distract him from seeing people sitting at desk with head pieces on while looking at computers. He starts to notice that everyone is watching him and thinks they are out to get him. This further enhances his paranoia that something is off in his “life”. This makes him want to figure out the mystery of what is happening behind closed doors. He now starts to question everything in his life.
This differs from the “Allegory of the Cave” because instead of someone else revealing the truth to him he discovers it on his own.

This allows him to have an easier time accepting the truth because it was not someone else telling him the unthinkable. One day he creates the image that he fell asleep while being in the basement. The producers realize it and everyone goes on a search for him. In actuality, he is on a boat sailing off the island of Seahaven. He is trying to break the chains of the cave and search for his true love and his father. In order to prevent him from discovering the truth the producer creates a violent storm in the set, hoping to shake Truman enough for him to turn around. You can see in the viewer’s eyes the concern they have for him as they cheer him on but also their sense of realization that the show is going to be over. Truman declares he will not give up and continues to sail on into the sea until he runs into a wall. The fact that he ran into a wall validates his theory that his life was not real and allows him to reconcile with his

curiosity.
To try and continue the unrealistic life of Truman the producer comes on the loud speaker of the set and starts talking to him. He tries to explain why he practically enslaved Truman for his own benefit and for the amusement of millions of others. He asks Truman to stay with him in the fake world he created. Truman declines and turns to the hidden cameras and says his famous lines, “Good morning and in case I don’t see ya, Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.” then proceeds to walk out the “sky” door. This heightens his conceptualization of life and his perceived reality. It 4444 illustrates that he has grasped the truth of reality. Now that he has knowledge of the truth he cannot conform back to his old ways inside the cave of Seahaven. This highlights the idea in the “Allegory of the Cave” that after the prisoner was exposed to the light, he was unable to rejoin the other prisoners back in the cave. Furthermore, emphasizing Pluto’s belief that knowledge is more powerful than ignorance.
Overall, there is a lot of symbolic representation of the “Allegory of the Cave” in The Truman Show. Starting with Seahaven being the cave he is chained in and ending with everyone in his life being actors like the shadows on the walls in the caves. The movie raises questions in the viewers minds of human existence and alternate realities similar to those that Plato once had thousands of years ago. The main idea is that we do not know if the world we are living in is reality. Plato wants us to look past the world in front of us and question our own identities and realities to discover the enlightenment of the truth.