Genevieve Baruffaldi
April 7th 2015

The Truman Show: Personal Response

We all encounter moments throughout our lifetime where we question its meaning, and if its principles cohere into ours. This often results from an excessive routine, or behaviour, that sits into are daily lives which make us seek for deeper meaning in things, thriving us into looking elsewhere, whether it is with a different location, different people, or a different culture, in pursuance of a true sense of honesty and moral towards our personal identities. A sense of instinct over the rightfulness of our actions and thoughts conduct us to question the honesty and essence of our morality. In the movie, “The Truman Show”, directed by Peter Weir, Truman Burbank demonstrates acts in order develops and nurture his personal integrity.

First and foremost, the woman that Truman encounters, Lauren, initially during his teenage years is what truly persuades him to encounter somewhere else, beyond Sea Haven. Although it is shown he has been a bit curious about the outside world as a child, his fear of water is what makes him stop from furthermore exploration, which demonstrates the impact of Lauren, in order to vanquish his fear as shown later on in the ending of the film. Particularly during the climax, it is depicted how far his sense of need for integrity in each aspect of his life, whether it is love, family, friendship, and the meaning of life in its self, by sacrificing everything, including himself. Not to mention, the longevity of his goal in order to find her in the real world she has gone to, that is described as “Fiji”, is shown when Truman pulls out the picture of compiled magazine models, as to recreate a resemble of her face, to remember her, and what she represents. Therefore, Lauren was demonstrating the aspect of the universal theme, of love, as the initiating trigger to make him persevere for his need of integrity, no matter the risks or dangers that were involved.

Secondly, his father’s short appearance is what transcends Truman into seeking more truth, factually and morally, when witnessing the town’s people reaction to his incidental recognition. After the occurrence, he feels strong emotions of confusion and puzzlement, which leads him to consort to his mother, to explain how he felt so assured that it was indeed his father, but the rest of his entourage kept firmly stating that it wasn’t him in order to prevent him, from looking further in order to find his dad. The constant contradiction of his community initially makes Truman feel, that he is simply the one who is wrong, due to the fact that no one in the town is sharing his opinion, but gradually starts to doubt more and more, if solely he, is the one to be right and everybody around him are wrong or lying, specifying again in the importance of truthfulness, leading to integrity. With his goal of finding the truth about him and his surroundings, this leads him to making more research on himself and further fundamental evidence, by tracing back to his history, more specifically his pictures books, and ultimately recognising his wife’s crossed fingers, signifying her lying of truly loving him, reinforcing the continual lie, that Truman generally feels in his life, considering the constant contradictions by everyone else, towards the abnormalities he experiences in his environment.

Lastly, after starting to round up