Close Reading The Truman Show

by Mickey

I recently watched the movie the Truman Show starring Jim Carrie as Truman Burbank, the main character. Truman is living in a sheltered world, everything he knows is fake, and he is completely unaware of it. To him this life is normal there is nothing suspicious going on. Strange things start  to happen in Seahaven, a set that is man made and big enough to hold a population of a small country. Truman comes in contact with weird things, including a light fixture falling from the sky. He starts to freak out and is convinced that no one is trustworthy (he is correct). Everyone convinces him otherwise and tells him he is crazy.

This movie is a great example of control and also the importance of human rights. Lots of people feel as though Truman was trapped, or in a jail cell. Other people thought that this is what hes comfortable with, why change it? The actors are being paid to tell him that this is how life is, yet something inside of him tells him they are wrong. The producer at the end trys to control him by saying, the world out there is terrible, unlike this world. But Truman feels as though living a "normal" life is more important, and goes out into the world.