I found the theme of what is real versus what is not real to be very interesting. When the man is sitting on the bench with his jewel, I felt that he was showing a bit of inner conflict. He was debating with himself whether the jewel he was holding and somewhat appraising was real or not. He wants to believe this jewel he sent away for is the real deal, but his common world knowledge is telling him otherwise. Later in the film we see the same man standing by a lake holding several pictures. He is discussing whether or not God is real. I think he believes that there truly is a God, but just not in a conventional sort of way. He, instead, believes in each race or nationality having their own Heaven. Another place where this is seen is when the turkey hunter hears what he believes to be a great number of turkeys, but when he finds them, they are nothing more than buzzards. This fits in with the theme because from far away, he saw “turkeys” but as he approached he realized that they were simply buzzards. Taking a closer look for truth is something that we must all do in order to find our own personal truths.

In his interview with Bill Moyers, Errol Morris is asked “How can we convince ourselves that something is true even though it isn’t?” Morris responds by saying that in our search for truth, we will find anything that makes sense and apply it. This is just what the characters of Vernon Florida are doing. The man with the pictures for example is taking common beliefs and putting his own spin on them because that’s what makes sense to him. The turkey hunter just had to take a closer look to realize his turkeys were fakes. This is also what the man with the pictures was doing when he was on the bench looking at his jewel. He was trying to take a closer look to figure out whether it was genuine or a fake.