Examples Of The Simulacruman Show

Welcome to the Desert of the Real In Peter Weir’s The Truman Show, Truman Burbank gradually discovers that his life is actually a worldwide television show. Truman is the main character of the show and the only one unaware that his life is staged. Everyone he knows is an actor or actress, and every aspect of his life is controlled and maintained. The town of Seahaven, where Truman has been stuck since birth, is actually a giant television studio—in this way, Seahaven is a simulacrum. Everything in Seahaven is controlled and maintained. Truman lives a middle class life with a wife and a decent job. The creator of the television show believes that he is doing Truman a kindness by keeping him comfortably locked inside the idealistic, little world. However, as Badiou says, using a false imitation of an ideal as reality is the definition of evil. Seahaven can be compared to the Nazi’s attempt to create a perfect Arian race or to Walt Disney’s controlled and structured Disney Land. All of these creations are merely simulations that reject certain unpleasant aspects of reality. Truman’s human relationships are greatly affected by the simulacrum he is encased in because none of his relationships are real. They are not based on real trust or love but a paycheck. For example, Truman …show more content…
We face this question constantly in everyday life: the government having access to private information on our cell phones, police being able to dearch our cars, cameras being put up on street corners and in class rooms, etc. At what point point does control and predictability become irrational? The Truman Show seems outrageous at first glance, but aren’t we all in some type of simulacrum? The only difference between real life and The Truman Show is that Truman escaped his simulacrum and denied the false reality presented to him… while our society seems to prefer