The Marxist Show

The ideas of the Marxist Theory has been involved in our media for years. The Truman Show is a film that supports the Marxist Theory by critiquing the media’s overzealous commercialism and hegemonic ways. In The Truman Show, Jim Carrey plays a man named Truman who discovers that his life is a TV show. Everyone in his life is a paid actor; they all specialize in advertising for companies in small talk. Because of the advertising display in the show, the film shows that our media is constantly trying to “sell” us something, whether it be an ideology or a certain brand of peanut butter. These displays benefit what Marxists would call the ruling class. This film shatters a dominant ideology of the “American dream” by showing the superficiality of consumerism. Truman seemingly has the perfect life: the wife, the friendly neighbors, the good job; these aspects of his life are the dominant ideologies that the show portrays as the “norm”. But when Truman realizes his life is fake, these ideologies are broken down. This supports the Marxist Theory because it shows that dominant ideologies are conveyed through the media with the purpose of benefiting the ruling class. This film suggests that our “natural” way of thinking is instilled in us through media ports by those in power who have something to gain from it.