The Truman Show and Behavioral Psychology Why a Utopian...

For centuries, man has dreamt of constructing pristine simulated worlds , existing in a separate sphere from our imperfect reality. From the town of Pullman, a company town south of Chicago to Disney World, attempts to force Utopia have failed, falling prey to the complications of people’s personal desires. The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir, tells us the story of The Truman Show, an elaborate reality show built around the control of one man’s life. Christof, the director, has created an entire living city for Truman, the star of his show, and the only one not in on this whole elaborate fakery. Essentially, Truman is living his life in the simulation of a flawless, archetypal American town, for the entertainment of millions of†¦show more content†¦Truman’s life is free from dilemmas, and from any real choices to make regarding the path of his life. In Christof’s ideal world, Truman appears free to do anything he wants, while operating within the well-defined limits set by him and his crew. Ideally, the outside world (the world of Christof and the show’s audience) should have no influence on the separate world of Seahaven. To keep Truman in Seahaven, an island town, Christof stages a storm that supposedly kills his father, instilling a fear of water in Truman. Christof tries to contain Truman in the world of his own design, and limit Truman’s reality to the carefully selected domain of his TV show. In his attempt to completely separate Truman’s experience to the simulated world of the Truman Show, Christof is setting himself up for failure. The breakdown of his control system is ensured from the start, by the incompleteness of Christof’s knowledge of his constructed world. The most crucial gap in his knowledge is his unawareness of the inner intentions and desires of the people involved with the show. The best he can do is infer people’s emotions, and condition them to follow the rules of his simulation. In the case of the actors, this means making sure their personal goals and feelings are exactly that of the show as a whole. In Truman’s case, this means aligning his