The Truman Show/Sociological Perspective

Essay by Medasst3University, Bachelor'sA+, March 2010

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RUNNING HEAD: The Truman Show/Sociological Perspective

The Truman Show/Sociological Perspective

Claudette Morrison

University of Phoenix

March 1, 2010

The Truman Show/Sociological Perspective

The movie The Truman Show is a compelling movie about the affects of a controlled society on an individual. This movie stars Jim Cary as Truman Burbank and is set in modern-day reality. The hypothesis of the movie is a mammoth sociological experiment involving this man named Truman. Truman is born and raised on a gigantic movie set. Truman's every action, since his birth, is documented in the form of a television reality show. Every aspect of Truman's life has been preconditioned since his birth. This preconditioning is much like how society teaches children today; the only difference with Truman is his life is much more controlled. One's culture is the totality of customs learned like ideas, values, and knowledge (Schaefer, 2003).

Truman's culture and norms where taught to him based on what Christoph, the director in the movie, thought was an ideal society. Truman's social location is even chosen for him as the movie reveals he is a white male salesman earning a modest income. The most interesting twist to the movie is Truman's life is broadcast worldwide much like the reality shows of today. The Truman show examines how society has a propensity to accept the reality that we live in, and how we become products of society and other sociological viewpoints.

Events Based on Sociological views

The Truman show demonstrates how much society affects the behaviors of the individuals who live inside of it. Throughout the movie Christoph conditions Truman to be afraid of sailing, swimming, or traveling to far off places. In the movie Truman's father is shown to have died in a massive...