The Truman Show

Plot

100

'Why don't I make you some of this new _________ Drink? All natural. Cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua. No artificial sweeteners."

What is Mococoa Drink?

200

Truman dreams of going to this place.

What is Fiji?

300

This is Cristof's invented reason for explaining Truman's father's absence.

What is amnesia?

400

This is Truman's sailboat's name.

What is the Santa Maria?

500

This event causes Truman to realize that there is something wrong with his surroundings. After this event happens, he starts to notice that things are not natural in his life and are way too scripted and starts to think that maybe there is something wrong with his reality.

What is meeting his supposedly dead father, Kirk?

Major Themes

100

This is the saying that describes the situation where the fact you do not know something may actually help protect you from the hurtful reality.

What is the saying 'is ignorance bliss?'

200

We seem to believe in the things that we are presented with. We are dependent on something other than true knowledge. We tend to believe in 'common knowledge' and personal beliefs even though we do not really know they are true or false. All these beliefs and 'knowledge' form our personal ________.

What is perspective?

300

These sorts of objections are shown in the movie through the situation of trying to control every aspect of a person's life and not allowing that person to have any real freedom of choice.

What is an ethical objection?

400

A utopia is a place where it is supposed to be 'perfect.' But, utopias are in reality impossible to create. The failed version of a utopian society is called a ________ society.

What is a dystopian society?

500

Truman did not have this right, that people in society believed should have.

What is freedom?

Connections with Other Literature

100

Though the main character in this story does finally come to a big realization that his life is not what it seems to be, his reaction was much different to Truman's reaction. The character in this story ends up dying and the story was a tragedy, while the Truman Show had a happy ending.

What is Hamlet?

200

This story has a similar environment created like Truman's in the Truman Show. In this story, everything that is done by the citizens are watched by 'telescreens' and the government dictates everyone's every move.

What is 1984?

300

Truman was fooled by the artificial reality fabricated by others and had no choice but to just blindly follow it, and this source had similar prisoners in a similar artificial reality.

What is Plato's Cave?

400

Freebie

Freebie

500

This author's couplet described how heaven cries when it sees a caged bird. This is very similar to Truman's situation and how he was no different than a bird locked in a cage because he was taken away the freedom to know the reality.

Who is William Blake?

Connections with Modern Society

100

This type of experiment is one where the victim is forced to be raised without legitimate human interaction.

What is a forbidden experiment?

200

The chocolate drink given to Truman to try and calm him down and the image of that drink being broadcasted across the world is an example of this market strategy.

What is product placement?

300

This show is all one huge ________ __________. These types of shows are popular today, maybe because these shows allow the viewers to escape their own lives and jump into the lives of the people they are watching.

What is a reality show?

400

The media causes this phenomenon in our society today. An example of this is how they portray Coke and Pepsi to be two totally different things, when in reality, they are largely the same product. Truman's life is a big version of this _____ reality because everything is constructed and portrayed through the big filter of the producer.

What is false reality?

500

We seem to believe in the things that we are presented with. We are dependent on something other than true knowledge. We tend to believe in 'common knowledge' and personal beliefs even though we do not really know they are true or false. This combination of our own idea of our own personal knowledge and beliefs forms our _________. Like this, Truman has his own _________, but the difference between him and us out in normal society is that we can compare our perspectives with others and see if it is right, while Truman is stuck with whatever information the producer decides to feed him.

What is perspective?