Georyana Santos
Eng 140. H1
Driggers
26 October 2014
Self-Identity: Childhood to Manhood Peter Weir’s 1998 film entitled The Truman Show stops at nothing to depict just how much manipulation and traumatization can affect a human being. The motion picture presents Truman Burbank, a man who has been legally adopted by a television network and set up to live in a constructed set entitled Seahaven filled with fictional elements. He is shadowed by an estimation of five thousand cameras in order to be broadcasted 24 hours a day, not knowing he has been the star of his own television show for nearly thirty years. In the article “The Truman Show: How’s it Going to End?” psychoanalysts Michael Brearley and Andrea Sabbadini make the decision to adjust the focus onto particular attributes of Truman’s character instead of discussing the controversial topic of what is real versus fictional in the film. The article claims The Truman Show is about something much bigger than that. It holds a larger and more prominent meaning that lies within Burbank’s search for his self-identity and the rite of passage depicting his transition from childhood to becoming a True-man. In relations to the main protagonist of the film, …show more content…
By choosing to rebel against what has always been normality to Truman, he has allowed his old self to be destroyed in order to liberate his true self. As he takes his final bow, the audience is unaware of what lies behind the door marked ‘Exit’ but one thing is for sure, Truman has officially conquered his fears. This rite of passage from childhood to becoming a True-man is his victory and is nevertheless marked as successful. Regardless of what lies on the other side of Seahaven, for better or for worse, Truman has found his own interpretation of self-identity as he steps out into what could be considered, the real