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One is trapped in his own world, the other in a murder case. Both in the public eye. click Gone Girl, written by Gillian Flynn and originally published in June 2012, is a novel that falls under the thriller genre. For those of you who have not read the book, or seen the movie adaption, Nick and Amy Dunne appear to be the perfect couple to the public. click However, on their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy goes missing and a suspicious crime scene leads police to suspect Nick. The tantalizing question remains, what really happened to Amy? And when she finally returns,only Nick knows what kind of mastermind she really is but TERM 2
DEFINITION 2 even he doesnt suspect her final trap.clickSo how can such a text, where the protagonist finds no escape, be intertextually linked to a film most known for the escape of the main character? click The Truman Show, released in 1998 and directed by Peter Weir, is a story of a man living his whole life on a TV set without knowing and with his friends and family all acting. The show is run by a team of producers, led by Christof, who set up different factors to keep Truman unaware and trapped. Finally, after countless attempts, Truman faces his fear of water to sail to the edge of the set and escape. To TERM 3
DEFINITION 3 understand the link between these two texts, we must first understand what intertextuality is.clickIntertextuality, defined simply, is the relationship or link between two or more texts. Often, intertextually linked texts allow the audience to understand or reflect on one text through their knowledge of another. This can be seen between the Truman Show and Gone Girl. An understanding of how Nick can both escape Amys scheme but remained trapped with her in Gone Girl allows audiences to furtherreflect on the Truman Show and whether Trumans escape means freedom or not.click TERM 4
DEFINITION 4 So what kinds of links does Gone Girl have with The Truman Show? clickLooking at the main characters of each text, parallels begin to appear. click First, Nick Dunne and Truman Burbank share more similarities than just being the protagonists in their respective texts. Both male characters are around thirty years of age, live in a small, residential town and spend parts of their life in front of an audience of millions of people. Nick and Truman endeavor to discover the truth as they have both been put in a fake situation by another. In Gone Girl, Amy frames Nick for her murder whilst in The Truman Show, Christof fabricates TERM 5
DEFINITION 5 Trumans entire life. They both seek the truth and freedom and whilst both find the truth, it could be argued that neither truly escapes. Whilst Truman escapes the TV set, he is the most watched person in the world and would still be followed by the media off set. Nick, similarly, escapes the initial crime case that identifies him as the key suspect, but when Amy returns, he is trapped in his marriage as she threatens to ruin him with media coverage. Hence, even though they both escape their first trap, both are essentially never free due to the media.clickAmy Dunn could be compared to Christof from the Truman Show.
Firstly, Amy and Christof both fabricate anothers reality. Amy does this by framing Nick and Christof by providing Truman with a fake reality from his birth. Whilst they do this for different reasons, Amy for revenge and Christof for profit, they are both willing to kill to get what they want. This is shown when Christof nearly kills Truman to stop him from finding the truth and when Amy frames Nick for her murder as Missouri (where they live) has the death penalty. Both characters are masters at manipulation and plan their respective set ups carefully and in a way that makes it nearly impossible for others to work out whats going on.click TERM 7
DEFINITION 7 The use of two perspectives often makes the audience question which one is truth and which one is lie. These perspectives can influence the viewers opinion of a character and other such aspects of the text. The structure of these two texts are similar in this way. click Each text uses two different modes to show two different perspectives.In Gone Girl, the narrative of Nick is told in first person from the time Amy disappears to after she returns. Flynn alternated between Nicks and Amys story for each chapter. The first few Amy chapters are diary entries and dont reveal anything sinister about her and simply tell the story of how the two met, fell in love and how the TERM 8
DEFINITION 8 marriage progressed.Nicks perspective contradicts Amys diary entries though, which we later find out are fake. Hence two modes are used to portray a fake and a true story. Nicks perspective is real and shows how he feels and what hes thinking. Alternately, Amys diary entries are false and manipulate the readers into believing that, maybe, Nick did kill Amy.This same kind of technique is seen in The Truman Show as Weir switches between scenes inside the set and ones outside. Scenes inside the set are fake and ones outside show the truth behind the film. So, both texts use two perspectives to tell the story, one real and the other fake. click TERM 9
DEFINITION 9 Furthermore, these two texts share some common themes. click Firstly, a person will rebel if they are dissatisfied with their life is a common theme and explored in each text. This can be seen when Amy and Truman begin to rebel against their lives. In Gone Girl, Amy fakes her death and rebels not only against Nick, but life as she knows. After moving to small town Missouri to care for Nicks mum, Amy loses most of the prestige she is used to. As well as this, she discovers Nick has a mistress and realizes how discontent she is with her marriage and life in general. Hence, she rebels.Similarly, Truman is unhappy with his desk job and travel-less life and TERM 10
DEFINITION 10 this inspires him not only to rebel against everyone telling him to stay in Seahaven, but also against all the factors that are designed to keep him on the set. Within this theme, not only are Amy and Truman rebelling, both characters are rebelling to reach a life they do not know. To Amy, thats life without luxury, whilst to Truman, its life outside the set.clickSecondly, the two texts both investigate the theme of authenticity of a person. In both texts, media has made it increasingly difficult to differentiate between what is real about a person and what is made up for the sake of audience consumption. Media manipulating the authenticity of a person is explored through
this,clickThe secondhandexperience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality cant anymore,.clickThe Truman Show relies on the same social context, a basic understanding of the power of the media, but portrays it differently. Whilst Flynn explores the effect media has on the public image, Weir explores a society which satisfies itself in the form of reality shows and media coverage of anothers life. clickThis social context allows the authors of both texts to make similarsocial criticisms on the media.clickFlynn summarized her TERM 17
DEFINITION 17 socialcommentary, In todays media landscape every human emotion is packaged for someone else to consume... Fact is were consuming other peoples tragedies as entertainment,.clickUltimately, viewers feed off the media and the media feeds off them in a ruthless cycle which exploits individuals. The Truman Show makes the same critic by focusing on the impact of this cycle on a specific character. Hence, both texts critic this model.clickOne ending satisfies viewers, the other is realistic. Neither is really the end.When Amy returns at the end of Gone Girl, she threads together an TERM 18
DEFINITION 18 impressive story of how she was kidnapped, which Nick of course, knows is fake after being framed. Now out of the public eye and police attention, he takes his newly found freedom to divorce his somewhat psychotic wife. However, Amy, once again, reveals an elaborate scheme to trap Nick in their marriage; what would the public think of Nick if he left his Amazing Amy after the ordeal she went to and thethings she did just to return to him? And hence, he must stay with her and remain trapped in his marriage.Truman, on the other hand, does learn the truth about his life and manages to escape the set. This is where Weir decided to end the film, TERM 19
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Truman walking off the set, as Christof watches, into a world
he does not know. Weir ends the film with him escaping
giving the audience a sense of triumph.clickAnd this
understanding of Nicks story,clickprompts viewers to
question the authenticity of Trumans freedom.click
