How do they keep Truman on the island? Glad you asked. They manufacture a fear of water based on false trauma which occurred through a false memory. The event happened but it was staged and everyone involved were actors. Water is Trumanâs salvation. Water is also Mikeâs. Each ST character has to cross that metaphorical âoceanâ if they want to escape like Truman did.
The Symbolism:
The fear of water symbolizes Truman's confinement and his inability to face the unknown outside world.Â
His eventual conquest of this fear, when he sails away, signifies his rebirth and the death of his old, controlled self, allowing him to break free.
Something something water being the most prevalent symbolism in all of Stranger Things
(which is saying something for a show chock full of it) Jane has to be in her bath to see the truth. Water in the void but not the Upside Down. When Mike lies to El and the vines tighten around her (because she knows heâs lying) itâs after they remove her physical body from the tub and put her on the counter. She comes back from all this through the power of her love for Max, not Mikes words. (Some of which I do believe are true I think he feels genuine love for her just not the kind theyâve both been pretending it is.)
Mikes inability to be honest affects more than just himself. He causes pain to several people around him, not the least of which are Jane and Will. And heâs incidentally keeping them all stuck on the island with him. We know Will comes to terms with himself early on and his struggle is more a matter of hiding, something that S5 opener shows us he is VERY good at. Heâs been hiding his whole life so surely of all the kids heâd survive the longest in the UD. BUT he doesnât lie to himself. He has his (rainbow) ship and has had it for a long time.
Will knows himself and needs the world around him to accept him.
Mike refuses to know himself so that the world around him will accept him.
Iâm too lazy to find the pic but throughout the entirety of the series there is a ship on the wall of Mikeâs basement adjacent to the infamous rainbow pic which is shooting out of a red heart. Both of these things are separated by the tiger poster right between them. Tigers are heavily present in the story. And letâs not forget what the wall (our shadow self) taught us in S5, you canât go over it and you canât go under it, you must go THROUGH it.

















