Bianca Reyes
Meghan McDaniel
Dr. Ari Santas
Persons, Fate, and Freedom in Film
February 13, 2013
Short Paper #1
The theme of this unit was personhood. It delved deep into the inner goings on of the
human brain; thinking about how one’s own brain works and trying to separate fact from fiction
was inevitable while watching these plot twisting films. The three films that exemplified the
theme of this unit the most were The Truman Show, Imposter, and Memento. This was evident
to us via the underlying messages that came with the action and thrill in these movies.
In The Truman Show, Jim Carrey’s character is kept in a fake society and is surrounded
by actors. Essentially, his whole life is a lie. Every step he made, every choice he made was
carefully planned out before he even knew it. However, he did not know any better. Unaware of
the fact that there was an outside world that he had never even come close to being in contact
with-having never been outside of Sea Haven-Truman became curious. Obviously he was
unaware that the outside world was inaccessible since is life was television show, and he literally
lived in a giant bubble. When he tried to leave, the people of Sea Haven did everything in their
power to stop him causing him to turn on everyone he knew and try even harder to escape. This
can be related to the Allegory of the Cave in that the prisoners were born into a world that of
darkness; in other words, they never knew of the light’s existence. They were chained to a wall
from the day they were born until the day they died, and their only inkling to the idea of light
was the shadows that they saw drifting against the corridors. The two storylines relate in that
from birth, none of the main characters knew of an outside world, nor that there was an outside
world. Furthermore, they were all curious about the outside world regardless of the fact that they
didn’t know about its vastness. All in all, these two pieces of work are incredibly similar.
The Truman Show and the Allegory of the Cave relate to personhood in one very blatant
way: your surroundings and upbringing directly affect your outlook on the world. If you are
raised to think a certain way, your mind doesn’t automatically know that there are other things to
explore until you’ve actually seen them or heard about them. In the cases of these two stories,
neither of the main characters had ever seen or heard about anything other than what they had
lived with their entire lives. Essentially, one cannot know or assume that there is more to life
than what they know unless someone tells them about it or they see something related to it. This
sheds light to the idea that seeing is believing.
The insight to one’s self is the key to finding his role in his community. In the movie
Imposter, the main character, Spencer, is accused of being abducted by aliens who steal his sole
and plant a bomb to detonate at a certain time. Spencer escaped from the hands of the law
enforcement in his community and is on the run for the entire movie. Throughout the course of
the movie, Spencer tried to create evidence to clear his name and prove his innocence. At the end
of the movie, Spencer found out that his wife was abducted, along with him, by the aliens and
created with a bomb inside his chest. Once Spencer truly understands what he is, the bomb inside
of his chest detonates and destroys his whole world. The significance of Imposter is to show that
one does not know his true self until he has evidentiary support for him claim. One can go
through his whole life believing he is one person, but then a revelation occurs and he sees that he
is completely different than imagined.
In the Critiques of Locke’s Memory Theory, Locke’s memory theory is discussed. The
different interpretations of his theory blend in with the message in Imposter. The interpretations
coincide with Locke’s original ideas on personhood because they agree that one’s past will
define his future. The theories agree that a one’s personhood comes from the understanding of
his role in society. Without the understanding of his role and part, he will become lost and lose
his personhood.
Memento was an excellent demonstration of the difference between relations of ideas and
matters of fact. This relates to the fact that David Hume was very adamant about the difference
between these two things. In Memento and Hume’s Skeptical Doubts, the fine line between these
two types of knowledge becomes more and more defined. Basically, relations of ideas are things
that never change and can be proved logically or mathematically. Things such as 2+2=2; this will
never change. However, the sun rising and setting every day is something that does happen, but
it is potentially possible that one day it could not, thus it is a matter of fact. You assume it will
happen, but it has not yet been mathematically proven that the sun will rise and set every day for
the rest of time. In Memento, Leonard lost his ability to make new memories. This causes him to
live the majority of his life on matters of fact. He has to survive off of all these notes, pictures,
and tattoos of basic information that he should know about himself and his life in order to make
it through the day. Even more so, he also uses a lot of relations of ideas, things that are proven
and will always, without a shadow of a doubt be true. So, overall, these two storylines relate in
that they both relay the difference between the two forms of knowledge and fact to their
audiences.
Memento and Hume’s Skeptical Doubts can be related to personhood in that the ability to
make memories and have basic knowledge of the world around you is what allows you to lead a
normal life. Without these abilities, you will undoubtedly live out your days in a state of mass
confusion. One must essentially be able to have a normal brain in order to evolve. If someone
can’t create new memories, they cannot possibly evolve with his or her surrounding
environments. On top of that, the inability to evolve will inevitably lead to the demise of a
species. It is the capability to change as a human race that allows us to move on. If you are stuck
in a time period, you will never be able to grow; your mind can’t help but to keep wanting to live
like you did when you stopped evolving. It’s a simple fact, really: the ability to evolve comes
with the ability to separate relations of ideas, matters of fact, and creating new memories in order
to know how the world around you works.
Separating fact from fiction and fantasy from reality was one of the main obstacles for
the characters in this unit. One’s own identity is unraveled through his past and interpreted
through his current actions. These movies in the unit, Personhood, were very good examples for
the fight to find one’s identity. The struggle to truly understand one’s personhood will always
stay around, but the way one chooses to fight around his obstacles will continue to change.