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Symbolism In The Truman Show

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We often notice a range of empowered and disempowered people in modern society. It appears that people with a higher socio-economic status are more empowered than people who live in poverty, people who are white have more authority than people who are of colour. We see Truman Burbank, a cheerful civilian living in an almost ideal world, though he is disempowered as he is completely unaware that his reality isn't really reality after all. The movie ‘The Truman Show,’ directed by Peter Weir (1998), challenges modern society and it’s rapidly developing usage of technology and the viewing of reality television through the use of symbolism, dialogue and technical codes.

We see that The Truman Show director Christof, is presented as powerful over Truman through the use of symbolism within the reality TV show. We see Christof floating in an orb above Truman’s ideal world. The comparison of this is that of a higher power; just like God or Christ, Christof controls everything that happens in …show more content…

The camera shots broadcasted within the reality TV show are extremely intrusive, capturing Truman’s every move. Unlike most other people, Truman is challenged by this deprivation of privacy; audiences can watch Truman as soon as he wakes up in the morning through the camera in his bathroom mirror, audiences observe him as he travels to work from the camera within his vehicle, and the people he supposedly knows have cameras hidden on them. Truman is unable to control how people view him, what they see and what he does in front of them. Lighting is used to show the insincerity characters within the film show towards Truman. While Truman speaks to Marlon, his childhood friend, we notice half of Marlon’s face brighter than the other which is covered by shadows, evoking a sense of a lack of sincerity, untrustworthiness and obvious

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