Warm-up:
On a separate sheet of paper respond to the following questions, preparing to discuss your answers with the class:
- What do we mean when we say “reality”? Emphasize/consider that people have both lived experiences and mediated or media experiences which contribute to our sense of reality or the real.
- Responsibility or control is also at issue in considering reality. Is something more or less real if it is controlled? Who gets to control? How are our lives controlled?
- Who takes responsibility for (constructing) reality? Who in the film does? How is Christof’s way of doing this different than Truman’s? Who else is involved (viewers, actors, technicians)? What parallelisms can be found between the way the media control Truman’s life and the forces that control our lives?
Objective:
SWBAT analyze the socialization issues and concepts portrayed in The Truman
Show.
Show.