Reflection: "Why do you think Don Octavio DeFlores is Dr. Mickler?"

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was an interesting book to read, seeing as how we are newly moved-in freshmen with the obvious desire to make friends and be accepted. I thought that most of Goffman's points were right on track, as embarrassingly revealing as they may have been. Take it from someone who overthinks everything, I don't think there was much I hadn't already reflected upon myself in this book. Maintaining a mask can be crucial sometimes.

Comparing Goffman's ideas to these first couple of weeks of school, I think a lot of the fronts that people maintain comes from the insecurity of a new environment. When you don't know people, you don't know which mask to put on, and that's part of the fear. You don't want to accidentally offend someone. But the more you get to know people, the more you know how these new people will react to the things you say and do. I see it less as a performance, and more like trial and error.

We watched the movie Don Juan DeMarco last night, which, to our dismay, we related back to Goffman. Don Juan (Johnny Depp) has two very distinct masks. One, that he is the world's greatest lover, and the other, that he is an obsessive suicidal man. As the movie progresses and Don Juan recounts his tale to Dr. Mickler (Marlon Brando), it becomes more and more difficult to discern between which story is the truth: Is he a great romancer or a schizophrenic patient?

While this is an obviously caricatured example of putting on a mask (in Don Juan's case, both literally and symbolically), it asserts the point that we put on masks to suit our needs, and in some cases, to protect ourselves. As Don Juan states, seeing everything for just how it is, is an "unimaginative way of looking at the situation."

Hopefully no one has masks as drastic as Don Juan's, but everyone has contradicting masks to a certain extent. I can relate from experience that in high school I had teachers that I would be casual and talkative to, and others with whom I only spoke very seriously. I had friends that I would go to the Nutcracker with, and friends that I would go to the playground with. These fronts are all a part of me, but they certainlly can't be displayed at the same time.