Truman acts the same with the people around him. He says the same things to the same people everyday, and they will reply with the same thing. He is always kind and cheerful to people around him.
When Truman goes to work as he steps out-side his door the next-door neighbours are outside and they say “good morning” to Truman, he then replies “ good morning, and encase I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night. Once again this is an exaggerated version of the real world and the way people act. We have all been trained to do things; saying hello to people, shaking hands ect. These actions and statements aren’t always genuine. You will often say tings but you don’t really mean it e.g. if someone gives you a present that you don’t like, most people wouldn’t say “I don’t wan it take it back” most people would say “thank you for the present”
Truman is different when he is with Sylvia on the beach, or with Marlon, who he thinks he can trust.
The media has a big influence on Truman. This is also exaggerated compared to the real world. His wife will often show a product that she has got and start advertising the product by saying what it does. You will often advertise something that you have just brought buy telling all of you friends how good the product is e.g. “I’ve just got a new computer and it has a 3.2Ghz processor with hyper threading 1 GB of DDR 400 RAM” companies want you to advertise the product to your friends so they will go out and buy one. This is the same with your clothes. If you have a jumper with a Nike tick on the front than you are advertising Nike.
Truman wants to become an explorer in the film, but his dreams are crushed in various ways, the main thing they have done to stop him exploring is to kill his dad. When they were sailing they made his dad die by making him drown. This also made him scared of water and he is scared to cross any water. As Sea haven is on water he won’t leave, although he has tried a couple of times. He was going to go on a bus out of town, but that broke down, as the bus driver made it break down on purpose. He also wanted to fly away and go to Fiji, so he tried to book a flight, but there were no flights for a few months.
The media has stopped him from leaving Sea Haven as on TV it will show you that it is better to stay where you are than go and live somewhere else.
As Truman comes closer to breaking free and realising his dreams the more his private and public self come together. This is the same in are own quest to become an individual.
If anyone says that they know you better than you know yourself they only know your public self and not your private self.
His final use of his catchphrase and his cheesy grin, followed by the actors bow shows us the true difference between are private and public self.
