First of all if you haven't seen the movie I would suggest going out and renting it before reading the rest of this... One of my personal favorite of all time. Here is a paper I wrote about 8 years ago in my sociology class in college. Let me know what you think...The Truman Show is a powerful movie about the effects of society on an individual. This film stars Jim Carrey and is set in modern times. The premise of the movie is a massive sociological and psychological experiment involving a man named Truman Burbank. His character is born and raised on an enormous set in which the story takes place. His every action since birth has been recorded. Everything that Truman does has been conditioned to him throughout his life. This is much like societies today, only Truman's was strictly controlled. All of his culture and norms where taught to him based on the ideal society. His social location is even decided for him. He is a white male insurance salesman. The interesting twist is that his life is broadcast on television to countries all over the world. This movie has numerous sociological concepts that are played out throughout the movie. The Truman Show explores how we tend to accept the reality in which we are in, how we are all products of our own society, and other sociological perspectives.
This movie shows just how much a society can effect the behaviors of those individuals inside of it. Throughout the movie Truman is being conditioned to be afraid of certain things. For instance, the way in which his dad supposedly was in a gigantic storm in which he drowned. Since the set in on an island this is setup so that Truman will never be able to leave the island, because of his inherent fear of water. Also, when Truman enters the travel agency the walls are filled with posters of airplanes crashes and other warnings about the dangers of travel. Once again Christoph is using a form of deterrence, which simply means he is trying to create fear to control Truman's thoughts of ever leaving the set.
Christoph also uses conformity as a way to try and direct Truman's life in the path that he desires for the show. Conformity simply put is that people tend to follow the actions of a group. This is very evident in the scene on the bus when Truman is trying to escape the island. After the bus breaks down in an unusual way, everyone on the bus just gets up and leaves as if nothing is wrong. Christoph, the controller of Truman's world thinks that Truman will consider the situation normal because people tend to conform to what everyone else does. Truman though is smarter than that and realizes something is amiss. He realizes that something or someone is watching him and trying to control him.This is where the Control Theory can be related to The Truman Show. The theory states that inner and outer controls work to keep deviant behaviors in check. Christoph used inner controls such as his ideas of right and wrong and his fears to mold Truman into the person he is in the movie. Mostly though outer controls where used. His family and friends were there to try and influence his behaviors, thoughts and even actions. Soon though Truman rejects these controls and deviates from the society presented to him. He starts to feel a sense of anomie, which is a term coined by Emile Durkheim meaning a feeling of detachment or normlessness from one's society. He begins to feel less socially integrated or one with his society. Truman could no longer find comfort in his friends, family or co-workers. He begins to rebel against the very society that was built for him. Instead of conforming with the ways or everyday life for a middle classed businessman, he begins to act unpredictable and irrational. Even though in a normal society this would be considered deviant, in Truman's world the actors were taught to not pay too much attention to Truman so he doesn't suspect anything. He was conditioned that this sort of behavior was deviant and that people tend to react in some fashion to control or stop the deviance. When Truman realizes that his abnormal behavior is not even being acknowledged he knows that something is very wrong. This was a problem for the director and that is how Truman eventually figures out that he is in a sense a guinea pig.
The movie deals with the issue of realism on TV and the computer as well. Shows like The Real World try to portray real people with unscripted lines and total realism. These shows are nothing but pure rubbish. This is not realism, they know the camera is on them and they don't have any problems besides who to sleep with next in front of the world. The Truman Show showed the intimate side of human beings. The times in which the eyes of society were not on him, as far as he could tell. The scene in which he talks to himself in the mirror is a great example of that. Erving Goffman, a sociologist termed this as a person's "back stage". That is a place where no one else is around and a person can truly be him or herself. The "front stage" is how he acts to his co-workers and even his friends.The movie can be looked at from a functionalist perspective as well. The Truman Show itself served a function in its society. Television can and does play a powerful part on influencing the behaviors of individuals. The Truman Show was a tool used to show people how to act. Everyone was always very nice and polite. There was no crime or violence as in most cultures. Life on The Truman Show looked perfect and this served a function for the outsiders who were watching it while living in a imperfect society. It gave them a picture of the world that could be. That was one of the major draws of the show and with many other shows in reality. People tend to try to live vicariously through their own televisions.
There were a few different classic roles played in the move The Truman Show. Truman's status is that of a white collared worker. His role is that he is expected to go to work everyday in his suit and tie, sell insurance, and obey the boss. His wife's status is the housewife and nurse. Her role includes nursing, cooking, cleaning, and she seems to be up on all the new products on the market as well. Truman's best friend role is to help Truman by giving him advice, laughing and crying with him. Of course, in the movie all of the roles and statuses are controlled and manipulated by a greater force. Truman eventually realizes this and has somewhat of a psychological breakdown.
The ending of the movie was very interesting. Truman decides to actually disregard his society, including his norms, customs, language and beliefs to go into an unknown world. Of course, in the movie this is regarded as some great triumph, but in real life it is difficult to completely refuse the reality that we are presented with for our entire life. Not knowing what lies beyond our society is a problem that most of us have in the world we live in today. People tend to just assume that where they live and what their customs and normals are the same as places all over the world. Truman decided that he needed to explore these other societies for himself and walks out the door to the unknown. If only all of us were so brave...
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