- “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented” Bearing in mind this quote from the film, what does this film teach us about perception? Consider our discussions surrounding the concept of illusion.
I strongly agree with this quotes, and i believe that it is perfectly illustrated through this movie. Truman is a man who really believes his world to be the real world. He grew up his entire life on a reality TV show, believing that his world was real, because that was what he was presented with his entire life. He had no reason to think or believe otherwise. Furthermore, he continues to believe so until he slowly begins to realize that some things don't fit in, at which point he slowly & reluctantly begins to question his world. We see that he doesn't directly assume that it isn't actually reality, for that is actually quite difficult to do. He realizes something going on, but he can't immediately figure it out (naturally.) Furthermore, the audience share his experience to a certain extent. At the beginning, we think that its all real, until we slowly begin to realize what is actually going on. We are very surprised when we see the size of the dome studio, at which point we are convinced that his entire world is literally manufactured. I think it is beyond our brains capability to question the information that it receives and the 'reality' that it is presented with. So the film basically teaches us that reality can in fact be subjective and is entirely based on the informaion that we are given. This movie exemplifies the fact that, what we perceive to be reality can be affected by external factors. More importantly it causes the audience to question their own 'realities' and wonder if there is more to it that what we do already know.
2. How does this link with the concept of our senses being the only link to the outside world?
Our senses are actually the connection between our brains and the outside world. We develop a perception of what our world is, based on the information that we receive from our senses. There might well be a bigger picture than what we do already know, but the reason that we do not question that possibility is due to the fact that we do not receive any information that insinuates it from our senses. At the end of the day, what we know and believe is limited by what our senses deliver to us. That is what we base our perception of reality on. In real life, there are people who believe that they have a sixth sense, those might be ones whose sense of feeling or intuition is stronger than that of the average person's. Often, they believe in a larger universe more strongly, simply due to the fact that they feel that they can feel it. In other words, they receive stronger information about that from their senses.
3. Give three real life examples where a person’s concept of reality is deliberately altered.
- Often, we believe certain things to be inappropriate for children for one reason or another. This is the perfect example of how reality can sometimes to be altered. A adults we consciously and deliberately choose not to inform children of somethings. Funny enough, to them these things aren't hidden, they simply do not exist. For example, often children do not understand the phenomenon of death, and they are never faced with it until they directly experience it through the death of someone they knew (even then they might not fully understand it) but the point is that prior to that point, to them, there is no such thing as death. They do not think about what happens after we grow...this is because of the limited information that we sometimes allow them to have. There are many other things that we do not tell them, which results in the fact that reality to an adult, is usually very different to what reality is to a child.
- We watch movies and read books knowing that they are not actually real. The authors and writers often make up these scenarios. But we are often so emerged in some movies and stories, and we relate so strongly and sympathize with the characters that we are willing to forget the fact that they are made up, and often use them for life lessons and inspiration. This concept is known as suspension of disbelief. There are many science fiction movies that are not meant to be realistic, and directors make the conscious decision to do that. They choose to alter our concepts of reality.
- The last example is so mundane that it might not even seem like one. The truth of the matter is, that as individuals,we often try to alter someone's perception of reality, almost on a daily basis. Think of every time you have tried to convince someone to do something for you, or tried to convince someone of your point of view. We often try to make others have a certain image of something...for example, as students, we often want our teachers to have a certain image of us that they view very positively. As a result, students often act very differently in classes than they do among friends. To a teacher, the reality is, that student X is a very serious person (because student X knows that this teacher likes serious students) Although, to this person's friends, s/he could be the most light hearted person. Examples such as this one are soooo common in our everyday lives.
The truth is, people almost always try to manipulate reality in some way, shape or form.
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