Reflection 8.28

Reading through Goffman for these past two weeks, many have called Goffman and his work, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, to be cynical. Indeed, by depicting social interaction as a series of performances, one may conclude that Goffman views human interaction as a sham, an insincere business used only for personal gain and satisfying our egos.
The problem with this assertion, however, is that Goffman's work is meant as an informative academic work rather than an opinion piece. In the book's preface, Goffman writes:

I mean this report to serve as a sort of handbook detailing one sociological perspective from which social life can be studied[.]

Rather than defend his work as the absolute authority on human interactions, Goffman maintains that his is but one of many "sociological perspective[s]" that can be considered.
As to the books unsettling metaphors, many interpretations exist. Each of us behaves differently around other people-we would not act the same way in front of our professors as we would on a Saturday night out on the town-but we do not actively seek to fool those whom we interact with. Each of the fronts that we put on throughout our lives, in front of different people and groups, may not be the true representation of who we are, but put together, when it comes to our character, they truly are a part of it.