The Truman Show: Response 1 and 2

All His World's A Stage

Author's Note: This is the first response I did to The Truman Show. I wanted to write a poem, because I was only halfway through the movie and didn't know the outcome yet. I incorporated "All the world's a stage" by Shakespeare, because in the movie, all Truman's world is a stage. I hope you enjoy it!

All his world's a stage

And all the men and women merely watch;

Merely tune in-- with dead eyes and dead minds

Watching one live his life, pausing their own

All his world's a lie

And all the men and women go along;

Along with the plan-- to keep his cage locked

To keep what is fake, the thing that's most real

All his world is crumbling

And all the men and women await;

Await his next move-- and what happens next

Something will change, a pattern will break

**

At Sea

Author's Note: This is the second response I did for the movie, The Truman Show. I decided to write a fictional piece with the same theme. I used some of the main symbols in the movie, like the ocean, and the viewers of his television show. This piece is kind of a diary-style story, and I tried to the best of my ability to write a paralell piece. I hope you enjoy!

I've always been afraid of the ocean. It's massive, and unforgiving. Ironically, it's also where I've lived ever since I can remember. I don't know why I haven't left, maybe it's because this ship sails in circles, or because my soul is the thing that's lost, but for whatever reason, I sit here now, rocking back and forth on the black waves.

Every day is the same. I wake up, steer the boat, avoid staring at the abyss below, go to bed, and start all over again. The thing is, though the ocean is vast, and just waiting to be explored, my boat goes no where.I always see repeating landmarks in the space around me. Those little things that stand out as you pass them. I've even started to count how many times I see them, and the numbers are giant.

This morning, something was different. I woke up feeling quesy, which was something that rarely happened. I stumbled out of my bed and outside, into the salty sea air. I clenched my fists around the metal railing before dropping my head down towards the sea. I never got as far as to empty my stomach, because staring back at me from the water below was a face. A scream erupted from my chest, knocking the sick feeling right out of me. The more I stared into the ocean, the more faces I saw. They were all strangers, nobody I recognized. Their  faces were blank, and their eyes looked right through me. A shutter shook my body, and I dropped back into the boat.

Am I going crazy? My mind spins, and I realize that going insane could be a legitimate possibility. The thing that scares me the most is that I have no one to tell me it's okay. No one to look into the ocean and tell me that there's nothing there, nothing to ease my pain. I lay there, on the boat floor, and stare into the sky, watching it slowly fade into darkness.

Every day it gets worse. The faces become more and more clear, they close in on me, and my sanity slips slowly away. I fear for what will become of me, for I am stuck on this boat, with no hope of leaving. I've even given up driving it, because that means I'd have to stare into the open water, into the thousands of faces that fill it. So my boat sits in the middle of the ocean, and I sit in it, letting the minutes tick by, one by one.

I can't even sleep anymore. Every time I close my eyes I see those pale faces, and peircing eyes, and my eyes burst open again, terrified of what I see. I'm almost positive my mind isnt right, I'm starting to hear voices, and whether it is because of the lack of sleep, or something else, I have to leave.

For the first time since I saw the faces, I go outside to the front of the boat. It seems to be closing in on me, too small for even one person to stand on. The wind whips my hair, but sweat beads on my forehead, and the world starts spinning around me. I can't take it anymore, I'm tired of being afraid of everything around me, tired of being caged in, not being able to live my life.

I don't know why I did what I did after that, maybe it was because of the strong things I was thinking, or because I had gone insane, but whatever the reason, I jumped. I dived off the front of the ship, into the cold, dark ocean. I kept my eyes wide open the whole time, staring back at the faces that had ruled me for however long it was. The cold enveloped me, and I felt arms pulling me every which way. I smiled, and let them.