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The Truman Show[1], released in 1998, follows the life of Truman Burbank, an unwitting protagonist of a reality television show where his every action is meticulously filmed and broadcast. The production studio of the Truman Show adopted Truman at birth, "the first child legally adopted by a production company." Christof, the creator of the show, uses numerous psychological manipulation techniques to keep Truman on the island. To this end, he instills in Truman the fear of water through the fake drowning of his father, and dissuades Truman from traveling through numerous fictitious information describing a myriad of travel-related dangers, which are dispersed throughout the island of "Seahaven" (can be literally translated as "sea haven") where Truman lives. The latter turns out to be entirely artificial, under a gigantic dome. Christof also uses physical elements to keep Truman on the island, some more implausible than others, such as the breakdown of the bus that Truman wanted to take to leave the island, but also forest fires or even a nuclear accident. The production also has total control over the weather. The film tells how Truman gradually becomes aware of the fake world around him and tries to escape from it. In the rest of this text, "The Truman Show" refers to the 1998 film, while "Truman Show" refers to the fictional television show that is part of The Truman Show story.

The Allegory of the Cave is a thought experiment, that is, a "type of experiment allowing to test only through imagination and reasoning hypotheses impossible to verify in practice"[2], told by Plato as a discussion between his brother Glaucon and Socrates[3] in The Republic. The allegory first describes people, imprisoned since birth in a cave. Tied against a wall, they are forced to look ahead, without even being able to look at each other. Behind these prisoners, other people, who are free, walk with raised figures or objects, and pronounce the name of the object they are holding as they pass. The light produced by a fire projects shadows of the figures on the wall facing the prisoners, which they are forced to watch. The echo of the cave amplifies the sounds, which the prisoners think come from the shadows.

If a prisoner were to be freed and observed the fire, he would be so blinded by it that he would return to his initial position, observing the shadows he would be able to observe. It would therefore be necessary to force a prisoner to leave the cave. In doing so, he would first be confronted with enormous pain due to the inability of his eyes to adapt to such a luminous world. Then, little by little, his eyes would get used to it, and could finally observe his new reality (and observe the Sun, image of the form of the Good in Plato's theory of forms). Once accustomed, the freed prisoner might return to the cave to inform his former fellow prisoners. At the same time, he would be completely blind in the cave, as his eyes would no longer be accustomed to such low light, and could with much greater difficulty distinguish the shadows on the wall. These shadows constituting the only and unique reality of the prisoners, this could push the latter to consider the liberation described by their comrade as something incapacitating, since it prevented him from accessing the entirety of their reality.

This allegory can have multiple interpretations, some notably very linked to Plato's theory of Forms, which we will not address.

It is possible to describe The Truman Show as presenting several levels of reality, as illustrated in the diagram above. First, at the center, we have "Seahaven Island", reality from Truman's point of view. Everything he sees is part of reality for him. This first level serves as a reference for us to compare it with other levels of reality. Next, we have the viewers of the Truman Show. From their point of view, nothing in Truman's reality is real, except for Truman himself. The rest are actors or extras. Finally, we have our reality. From our point of view, Truman's reality is doubly unreal, because it is unreal for the viewers of the Truman Show, which is itself a fictional television show in a fictional film. The actors of The Truman Show such as Christof are removed from us by one level of reality, while Truman, who is part of the Truman Show, is removed from us by two levels of reality. Each level of reality encompasses a knowledge of the "realism" of the realities it encompasses, but this is unidirectional, and this "realism" is obtained by comparing the reality of the comparator with the compared reality. In the diagram, a fourth hypothetical reality is present, encompassing our reality and captioned with "???", because we have no certainty as to its existence, like the prisoners of the cave, for whom reality is the shadows of objects belonging to what we know to be a reality encompassing their reality, which itself comes from Plato's imagination.

We can define a reality as any set of at least one person who is encompassed by another reality, without knowing it. This definition is recursive, that is to say that it contains itself, until arriving at the reality of the person using this definition. It is possible for a person to change reality, moving to a reality that encompasses their own. If it were the last person being part of his reality, this reality would no longer exist. It is possible for a person to create a new reality, provided that they encompass at least one reality, or have at least one candidate to belong to this reality who is not aware of the creator's reality (e.g., an amnesiac or a newborn, as in The Truman Show). To do this, one must create a system encompassing at least one person who is not aware of the creator's reality, but who still remains encompassed by the creator's reality. In the Truman Show, for example, Christof creates a reality encompassed by his reality thanks to a candidate for this reality, Truman, who is not aware of the reality of The Truman Show when he is inserted into his reality. In our case, it is possible to argue that The Truman Show does not meet the definition of reality previously exposed, because it is a fictional film whose actors know their role, however, it seems possible to me to consider the film as a reality, at least for analysis purposes because it aims as a film to describe a new reality, albeit fictional, just like the allegory of the cave.

In the context of The Truman Show, we can question why Truman does not realize that he is part of a reality that, from our point of view, is not entirely realistic (according to the definition of realism explained previously). What drove Truman to ignore his situation for so long, namely thirty years? To answer this question, it is appropriate to separate the elements of response into two distinct parts, namely active elements and passive elements.

To begin with, active elements include any means implemented by the production of the Truman Show to influence Truman's behavior, and sometimes even physically prevent him from leaving the island. This includes the behaviors of other actors towards Truman. For example, when technical issues occur. This is the case of the fall of a stage light from the sky which Truman witnesses at the beginning of the film. To avoid suspicion, the production transmits on the fictional radio that Truman listens to a message indicating an aircraft accident (which at the same time reinforces the feeling of danger of travel), and gives an explanation for this event that matches the reality that Truman lives. The production does the same when, by mistake, Truman hears the radio communications of the production, which describe his behavior live, giving the excuse of a problem related to radio frequencies used by the police. But also, when the actor playing Truman's father, Walter Moore (played by Brian Delate), infiltrates the Truman Show, and is immediately forcibly removed by other actors and forced onto a bus, the production publishes in the next day's fictional newspaper an article concerning a city action against the homeless, to explain this event. In parallel, the other actors close to Truman reassure him about the fact that it is normal to see one person in another. Other examples of active elements are the breakdown of the bus that Truman wanted to take to go to Chicago, the nuclear accident when he tried to leave Seahaven with Meryl, his wife in the Show, or even a supposed elevator accident when he discovers a hidden door leading to what appears to be backstage behind an elevator door. But also the behavior of his best friend Marlon, directed by the production, who, when Truman begins to be convinced that something is wrong, forces him to question their friendship at the same time as the rest. We can also note Meryl's argument about their financial situation when Truman mentions wanting to leave Seahaven, and, finally, the absence of tickets to the Fiji Islands for a month when Truman wants to buy them.

These are practical elements that want to influence Truman so that he does not leave the island, or prevent him from doing so when he is about to do so.

Opposite to active elements, we have passive elements. Here, it's about taking the question in the other direction, and asking, why doesn't Truman question his reality from his point of view. According to Christof, "each of us accepts the reality of the world to which he is confronted." This statement would seem to indicate that Truman does not question his reality because he would have no reason to do so. It seems interesting to note that, when Truman finally leaves the island by boat, he is not aware of the deception of which he is a part, he only has suspicions of a deception, but does not know its nature. His goal seems to be only to leave the island, which he desperately cannot leave because of the means put in place by the production, and perhaps to go to the Fiji Islands, where he was told that Sylvia, an extra with whom he fell in love and who was abruptly removed from Seahaven, moved. This is a key moment, because it is possible to argue that Sylvia is a key motive pushing Truman to want to leave the island. We can therefore conclude from this that Truman was not aware of the false reality in which he lived. He seemed to have eventually understood that something was wrong, but was never able, from his fictional reality, to understand that it was fictional. In the same way that the prisoners of the allegory of the cave cannot envision another reality when their freed comrade tells them about it. And it took the latter to be forcibly confronted with the "true" reality that encompassed his own for him to accept it, he did not arrive at it by himself, and was even contrary to it, in the same way as Truman, who pierces the painted sky set, and understands little by little, also thanks to Christof's explanations, the nature of his reality. He may not have been physically forced, but he was nevertheless confronted with the true nature of his reality despite himself. When Truman is finally informed of the "true" reality, Christof tries to put Truman in the same position as the other prisoners upon the return of their comrade, who refuse to believe in the existence of another reality. However, unlike the prisoners of the cave, Truman accepts to know the new reality, perhaps because it does not seem as dangerous to him as it seems to the prisoners.

Here we compare the prisoners of the allegory of the cave with Truman, but it is not the only connection between elements of these two works of fiction that we can make. The active physical elements put in place by the production of the Truman Show discussed previously can indeed be assimilated to the chains which, by force, hold the prisoners in the cave and force them to look at the shadows. Just like the active physical elements, they force the prisoners to be part of a certain reality. The active elements, always, but psychological, therefore the actors (here purely their material existence), can be compared to the projected shadows, just like elements such as the night-day cycle of Seahaven Island but also the simulated weather, the sets, the extras, etc..., in short all the practical installations intended to modify the appearance (not only visual) of Seahaven Island for Truman are part of the shadows cast by the "puppeteers". The actors and the production in turn can be compared to the puppeteers of the allegory of the cave. These are those who "give life" to the simulation of which Truman is a part, they are those who set up the shadows mentioned above. It is even possible to assimilate the puppeteers to a single one, Christof, at the top of the hierarchy. And the words pronounced by the puppeteers when the shadows pass would be what Christof wants Truman to think. The cave itself is truly the gigantic film set that is Seahaven, which contains the shadows, the puppeteers, and the only prisoner that is Truman. According to the text of the allegory of the cave, the Sun represents ultimate knowledge, in The Truman Show it would be the realization by Truman of the "true" reality.

A particularly interesting element of the allegory of the cave that can be seen in The Truman Show is the return of the freed prisoner to his comrades to announce the truth. In The Truman Show, Truman is the only prisoner. But the action of bringing into question reality is, indeed, very much present, it is our own questioning, after having viewed the film, as to the realism of our own reality.

Access to truth, as discussed previously, is, although nuanced, forced in both cases. In the allegory of the cave, however, to access knowledge, the Sun, the prisoner must be physically forced, because it is a reality that seems hostile to him at first sight. On the contrary, Truman is not forced to leave his reality. Some people try, however, to force him out of it, notably Sylvia, who tries to inform him of the fake world around him, but fail, at least in the immediate term. It is interesting to note that Truman's "escape" takes place after Meryl has separated from him, which can lead us to think that Truman, driven by his still existing love for Sylvia, managed to overcome all his fears. This is complemented by his growing suspicion due to the anomalies he has been able to observe, such as extras who spend their day doing loops around the neighborhood, having given him the willpower necessary to leave. But even this departure did not really have a destination. Truman did not need to know that another reality existed encompassing his own to still leave. It is also his lack of new horizons, he who had never left Seahaven, that pushes him to want to leave it. Unlike the cave, where the discovery of reality must be forced due to its nature, in The Truman Show, the discovery of the new reality by Truman is a profoundly human phenomenon. The discovery of reality by Truman is forced not because he is physically forced to discover it, even the opposite, but forced because, precisely, he was not aware of it. Although having suspicions of something, it was not possible for him to imagine what it really was.

This questioning can lead us to question the existence of another reality, more real, which would encompass ours. The existence of a "???". I am of the opinion that it is not possible to seek its existence, just as Truman could not seek it. Just as in a dream, we cannot realize that we are in a dream (excluding lucid dreams). However, just like Truman, we can observe dissonant, illogical, contradictory things, which can be an indication of the existence of a more real reality, although not necessarily being so. I think it is important to manage to remain lucid about this question, and, although it is important to question what must be questioned, not to question what, "true" or "false", cannot be. I am thinking particularly of certain conspiracy theories. It is also important not to "prove" something by the absence of evidence opposing it.

It is therefore possible to observe how the different layers of reality presented in The Truman Show allow us to reflect on several levels, by comparing the reality of The Truman Show to ours, while encompassing it, and define what a reality really is. This has led us to understand how Christof and the production of the Truman Show have long manipulated him to prevent him from wanting to leave the island of Seahaven, which delimited the confines of the film studio, but also how Truman himself has long not discovered the "true" reality, because nothing pushed him to do so, like the prisoners of the allegory of the cave. We also see how the parallels between the allegory of the cave and The Truman Show do not stop at Truman himself, but also the differences present between access to freedom between the two. Finally, are briefly mentioned certain means or non-means to access a superior reality, encompassing ours, and how it is not possible to seek its existence by oneself, that one must be "forced" by something or someone to know a new thing that one did not know and which allows us to know the existence and nature of this possible new reality. It is important to note that both The Truman Show and the allegory of the cave are fictional works, which are not based on real experiences (the second being as mentioned previously a thought experiment), and that it is in reality not possible to be certain that one or the other, or both are applicable to our reality, although they already allow us to question our reality. It is interesting to see in The Truman Show how Truman's love for Sylvia still played a key role in the discovery of the "true reality" by Truman, and how his desire to leave was often linked to a desire to go to the Fiji Islands where Sylvia had supposedly moved, and the more general role of human relationships in such a situation. We can also see in this analysis on reality a parallel with "virtual" realities, possible today through the unstoppable digitization of our lives, and to what extent such a reality would be comparable to a material reality.

References:

« Allegory of the Cave ». In Wikipedia, 5 mars 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Allegory_of_the_cave&oldid=1278936369.

Éditions Larousse. « expérience ». In Dictionnaire de français Larousse, s. d. https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/exp%C3%A9rience/32237.

Faire des maths ou disséquer des poulpes ? Platon vs Aristote | ft. ‪@Heu7reka et ‪@monsieurbidouille​, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rcs2gAzKbY.

« The Truman Show ». In Wikipedia, 22 mars 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Truman_Show&oldid=1281763886.

The Truman Show (VF), s. d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biZRJzwy4tQ.

[1] « The Truman Show ».

[2] Éditions Larousse, « Expérience ».

[3] « Allegory of the Cave ».