Truman Show Response

Author's Note: This is a response to the movie The Truman Show. The movie really made me think about the lingering questions about our own existence, and how we can tell if life is an illusion.
Truman Show Response


In reality only one thing that is certain is that I exist. I think and process life as it occurs to me, and I have opinions, so because I think I know I exist. However there is no proof that my surroundings exist, and these surroundings and people could be figments of my imagination, or people ordered to interact with me just like a movie set. The Truman Show exemplifies the notion that reality does not exist, and that it’s an illusion.



It is natural that we question our own existence, because at times it can seem so perfect and so brutal as if it’s an illusion or dream that one can wake up from. The Truman Show shows a man living inside a dome, living a fake life that is actually a movie set, and everyone who interacts with Truman is a paid actor. This plotline is asking how we know that life is real, and that the people we interact with and love are genuine. It shows all the strange twists that life takes, and the plausible idea that there is a divine being pulling the strings in life.



Many parts of the movie show the grinding routine that humanity pulls through on a daily basis. For example Truman keeps on going to the same job each day while making the same stops along the way. In life we constantly question what keeps us in our roles in life, and what is keeping us from being spontaneous, and doing what we wish. It seems like the laws we have to follow are flimsy guidelines created by a ruler who controls us. This is exemplified when Truman constantly tries to leave the island to travel to Fiji and other places, but the creator of the movie forces him back, and the same thing seems to occur in life. The things that we desire and want to happen are crushed by outside, uncontrollable variables in life. An example of this would be if one wants to go on vacation, and one’s car breaks down. It seems as though life is being controlled by someone who decides what happens to us.

Because it seems like we are being controlled in life, we try so desperately to break free from life by challenging our limits and challenging death. People do dangerous stunts such as sky-diving or act randomly as though we are challenging the being, “in charge” to control us, and these activities make us feel in control of our own lives. Truman does this a lot in the movie like when he sails on the ocean as far as he can go even though he is deathly afraid of water. This scene is him challenging the show’s director to enforce his power on Truman, and his crossing the ocean symbolizes him discovering life again once he reaches the end of his captivity.



Because we can feel as though life is an illusion or we are being controlled, we feel compelled to take risks, and this is the only way to satisfy our curiosity about the true nature of life. When can’t be sure if the people around us really exit, and if we are being controlled, so we try to stretch the boundaries in life to see if reality can change somehow to reveal the true nature of life which is what the Truman Show emphasizes. The movie tells us that life could very well be controlled by some higher being as if our lives are being played out.

Cocoa Beach

Author's Note: For spring break this year I traveled to Orlando, Florida and went to one of my favorite places in the world: Cocoa Beach. This poem is really about what this place means to me, and my experiences there.

Hot sun beating down on our heads,
We pant like dogs while sweat drips.
The discomfort well worth the pain.
The airport jungle braved and conquered,
Armies of ignorant passengers lay defeated,
Stressful rules and regulations lay behind.

Stress soon loses itself in our heads,
while all connection to the world is lost.
Only vague memories stay but not long.
We forget all the things that ruin life,
all the people who tease and laugh,
when your voice cracks and glasses tint.

The rolling surf punches our heads hard,
but we don't care one little bit.
We live for the pain and water,
feelings of something rubbing you,
we scream, "Shark!" and people look wildly,
only to realize its a bunch of dumb kids.

Beyond the water and the sand it's special,
this beach, which is our paradise.
We don't need to worry about home.
However not for very long before,
we must brave the jungle once again.
Back to cold, stupid Wisconsin.

A Mistreated Friend- Spoof of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordworth

Author's Note: This is an impression of William Wordsworth's  poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. Wordsworth ryhmed every other line with eight syllables per line. He also liked to change syntax in a sentence, so that's why some of the syntax in my poem is weird.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
 
WANDERED lonely as a cloud


That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.



Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of the bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.



The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:



For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

--
 
A Mistreated Friend

He gazed on like an old statue,

Which sits so lonely in a park,

He hated the crowd, his mood, blue,

The crowd his foe, his future dark;

Watching in the corner, with hate

Sputtering, muttering, as of late.



Everlasting are the bonds made,

Which pray last on forevermore,

Though tested and upset, they stayed,

They don't split and weather the storm,

Millions destroyed, don't weather, don't last,

But he did not dwell in the past.



The roses floated by; but they

Never caught his hand, life was gray

Not close to his friends did he stay,

With him how long could one by gay?

Other days he had a better mood,

But didn't change his attitude.



Although poke fun at you we do,

We seem fixed on mistreatment ,

Life wouldn't be the same sans you,

Though we treat you like excrement

Don't ever live in the past tense; for

We desire, need your presence .