Truman's Tribulation "We Accept the Reality of the World With Which We're Presented"

   What does it take for you to believe something as fact?  Will you accept what is told to you by your parents? What if this same thought was taught by every elder or teacher you had ever encountered?  It is hard to be skeptical of an idea provoked and supported by nearly every individual you've ever met.  But what about when it becomes more than just an idea, and physical evidence is pushed into your face around every turn?  I mean, seeing is believing, right?
    This is the kind of world Carrey's character Truman Burbank in Paramount's Truman Show is born into. From birth he has been watched around the world as the star of a reality tv show he had no choice in participating he.  It is the only world he knows, the only reality he has ever been given. As Truman is beginning to question his reality, he is bombarded by those closest to him that he  second guesses his own independent thoughts. Just before he finally breaks free of his life long imprisonment, Truman has a short conversation with the shows producer, who speaks over an intercom system and introduces himself as the "Creator".  In this conversation Truman asks the voice in the sky "Was nothing real?". The response he is given is the same as we here in clips of interviews with the fictional cast, that "everything is real, just controlled". I wish to point out a distinct separation in what is real and what is true.
     I believe that in Descartes' Second Meditation he seeks to find a similar distinction. He questions not only the existence of the items and world around him, but of his own body and consciousness. Back to the movie, everything Truman came into contact with was indeed real. He could see hear and touch everything in his world, but nothing he knew was true. Every person an actor and everything nothing more than props and stages for the largest television show conceivable. In order to leave his home and set sail for what he believes is open water, Truman must accept that something is false with the town he lives in. This doubt is verified when his boat rams into the horizon-painted wall of the dome that has held him from the world his entire life. In this realization he accepts that the only thing true about the reality he was born into is himself, not far from Descartes' meditation "..was I not then likewise persuaded that I did not exist? Not at all; of a surety I myself did exist since I persuaded myself of something".

The Truman Show: Reality vs. Illusion

In his second meditation, Descartes raises the question of whether or not our senses can be trusted. He talks about searching for truth and discarding that which cannot be proven. These ideas make him question his own existence, but he comes to believe that if he is able to think, he must exist. One major idea in this meditation is the difference between thinking/understanding and imagining/sensing. Descartes realizes that he cannot trust his senses because the world is ever changing. He can only trust knowledge because knowledge can surpass the limits our imaginations. The fact that Descartes can think about the world around him confirms his existence for him. 

In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank has unknowingly spent thirty years of his life on a set as a star of his own television show. Sometimes Truman begins to question those around him, but he is always shut down, so that he won’t suspect anything. He once asked his friend, “Don’t you ever get antsy?” to which his friend replied, “No, where is there to go?” Everyone in his life is an illusion to keep him satisfied. He is not allowed to be with his true love, Lauren, because she wants to tell him the truth, so he is constantly surrounded by actors that guide him into doing what they want him to do. When Christof, the show’s director is being interviewed, he says, “We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented.” When Lauren questions him, Christof says that Truman is free to leave at any time, but would only be able to do so if he were very determined. Throughout the course of the film, Truman becomes increasingly cynical over the nature of his reality and begins to question everything around him. He learns, like Descartes did, that he cannot trust his senses, as everyone has lied to him his entire life. He must use his knowledge to understand the world around him. When he finally becomes determined enough, he is able to escape and go into the real world.

How do we know that everything around us is not an illusion as well? Truman had decided what his reality was, and if he didn’t discover the truth, he could have gone on like that forever. Truman, though he is able to live on his own now, will always be skeptical. Even if we distinguish the differences between reality and illusion, can we ever fully trust what is happening around us?

The Truman Show, a Reality for Whom?

With Rene Descartes’ Second Meditation, Descartes has the idea of existence, in regards to whether a thinking entity truly exists, with his famous saying “cogito ergo sum”. Using that philosophy, and looking at The Truman Show; we know Truman was real, if anything, he was the realest thing in that situation, but I’m asking is if his surroundings, his life that was a fallacy. Was that real?

 Even though it was staged, and the actors actually lived around Truman, if it’s still there, still thinking and responding to Truman, does that make it a reality nonetheless? Was Truman being deceived his entire life just because his reality was different than ours, or was he being saved from our reality. 

We see that Truman is the most lively in the movie. He doubts, he wants adventure, hes curious. We don’t see this in the other citizens. No one wants to leave; everyone is fully content with their lifestyle. It seems so farfetched, to be completely content with ones life.

Truman realized that there was something deeply wrong with his life, he tried to escape, tried to figure it out, and became so helpless that he risked his life to leave. At the end, when Truman is given the chance to keep living this fake life, that the real world was the evil one; He relentlessly says his quirky comment then steps out of the dome. 

I’m glad that Truman did leave. I'm glad that he did not succumb to the unknown and his fears; instead, having enough strength to be willing to sail across water to find the exit.  I believe if Truman didn’t leave, he would have never been happy. He would have constantly wondered what was real or not, contemplating many things, even possibly losing his will to live or becoming mentally ill. In the film, we saw Truman driving in circles, scaring his wife because he felt like he was crazy, because this town hes always known was starting to fall apart around him, filling him with so much doubt. 

So in this instance, or this circumstance, is Truman’s TV life a reality or not? Well As terrible as the fact is, it is still a reality. Even though his family, and friends were just actors, and the town was a massive stage, the fact that Truman was real, was thinking, made the stage a reality. Christof, and the actors, tried to force him to fall in place the way the creators wanted, like with his first love, he still had free-will. He still questioned, he still doubted, the audience didn't lose hope on Truman, and were actually very joyous to watch Truman finally leave the dome.

Obviously, the stage, the dome, the town, is not real, but because Truman is on stage, not even acting, just being his natural self, it becomes alive. “I think, therefore I am”. When Truman stopped thinking it was real, that’s when everything started falling apart. I think this is my life, therefore it is (real).