blog 6 Allegory OF The Cave/ The Truman Show

The Truman Show describes a premeditated, controlled dishonesty of reality. Similarity can be described between Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Truman, who at first accepts, then questions the reality with which he is presented.
Truman Burbank lives in a regular Town which is actually the set of a television show and he is the main character. The people he thinks are his parents, friends, neighbors and wife are all just actors on the show. Truman’s life is controlled by the show’s director Christof and his team who conduct their work out of the set’s artificial moon. Truman was adopted by the television network since birth, this reality was the only reality he has ever known.
Christof states that “We only accept the reality with which we are presented. It is as simple as that”. This idea is also presented in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in which he describes prisoners living in a cave all their lives. These prisoners are tied up with chains around their necks and feet in a way which allows them to only see shadows on the wall in front of them. Due to the lack of knowledge the prisoners are not aware that those shadows are just puppets behind them and there is a real world out there. Like Truman he did not know anything beside the reality which was presented to him since birth and accepted that his whole life.
In Plato’s story he releases a prisoner from the cave to explore the world outside. At first it was difficult for him to accept the actual reality because he was used to the cave. The prisoner had many questions about his surroundings and wanted to educate himself with the surrounding he was looking at. Similar to Truman who had several experiences which could lead him to believe that there is something strange occurring when he got older, such as his conversations with Sylvia. However he didn’t understand what was going on and he did not ignore either. Truman like the prisoners makes a courageous decision to get answers and finds out that his life was just an entertainment on television. Truman like the prisoner was able to escape and face the real world.
Both stories presents prisoners and Truman being controlled by a world which was created for them. They were thought to believe what was around them was the truth and reality, until they discovered the true world which was hidden from them.