Erving Goffman

Symbolism, symbolism the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Throughout the book, The Other Side, the author uses symbolism. In the book Anne, a young white girl, says, “Someday somebody’s going to come along and knock this old fence down.” She does not mean the fence itself, she means the boundary between blacks and whites. The fence in the book is a boundary between the houses in the neighborhood.

Symbolic Interactionism (1)- The theory of symbolic interactionism conveys how society is made up of symbols that create meaning, develop communication, and produce world views. At the North Hanover Mall all interactions and even moods were established because of simple symbols. The overall mood of the mall was almost the same form person to person, a look of boredom was on the faces of many whether young or old. The attitude seemed to appear in people shortly after they entered the mall, once they had observed other individual’s body language and expressions, they shifted theirs as if they were trying to fit in with the crowd. Contrastingly when an employee

Symbols are found everywhere. With or without realizing it we see them everyday in our lives and in things we do. They serve the purpose of representing something bigger. Something as little as a cake is a symbol for it serves the purpose of celebrating something. Symbols are unique and each mean something different depending on the situation.

A symbol is someone or something that represents someone or something else. Symbols are used in literature because they represent a character, object, or place in a story. Similarly, there are plenty of symbols throughout the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Some examples of symbols in the book are Melinda’s tree projects, Maya Angelou, and Melinda’s report for Mr. Neck.

Symbols are determined by the reader. The writer does not just have one set meaning for a symbol. A readers depiction of symbols are based on their own personal experiences.

Symbolism is a figure of speech used when an author wants to create a certain mood or emotion in a literary work. When Frankenstein sees the flash of lightning destroy the beautiful oak into nothing more than thin

Symbolism is a literary device that uses objects or events that hides the even greater idea beyond what the text it gives you. For example, the bald eagle may seem like a fascinating bird, but to the eyes of an American the bald eagle represents freedom. Symbolism can be found throughout our everyday lives. Shoes have logos that are used to show what brand of shoes ones self is wearing, also money may seem like just paper, but it can also represent power.

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the language and symbols that help us give meaning to the experiences in life. It also studies how people discuss the meaning of social life during interactions

Erving Goffman was a sociologist known for developing the symbolic interaction and dramaturgical theory perspective. The dramaturgical theory is a social psychological perspective that studies human behavior and social interaction in terms of the analogy of the theater. This perspective is also related to symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is a theory based on interaction and communication, facilitated by many different words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired various meanings. Dramaturgical theorist focus on how people manipulate various aspects of themselves and their settings to influence how others define and respond to them. In this perspective, “the self” is constructed of the various roles that one acquires, in order to present their various selves in ways that sustain particular impressions to their audiences. “The self” is a private possession established in and reflective of an individual’s personality, which includes ones values, beliefs, motives, traits, and dispositions. In addition, a person’s “self” is acquired through social relationships and is a structurally fundamental process that may change due to various situations. As humans interact with one another they are placed in social categories based on their attributes and actions. These assessments are primarily based on ones knowledge of roles.

Symbols can be used as a representation of an object, function or process. There are symbols used every day whether that be in movies or books, on signs, etc. In the Lord of the Flies, there are several symbols; such as the conch shell, the beast, and the signal fire. Also, in Night, there are different symbols that mean different things such as the fire and night. Symbols can be hard for people to interpret, because they can mean different things to different people.

Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another. (Henslin, pg G-6). Symbolic interactionism which is derived from American pragmatism and particularly from the work of George Herbert Mead is influential in many areas of the sociological discipline; especially in social psychology

They just accessed their college dorm to see their professor walking around accompany with some of the students, heading to their apartment. How are they going to interact with such a scene? Well, it depends on each person’s point of view. While some may think it’s completely normal as teachers are just a part of the society, others may consider it highly suspicious and enough reason to doubt on the instructor intention or even his ethics. For other folks, their judge might vary based on the students-teachers’ relationship restrictions within their college. The reason beyond this plurality of opinions based on the Dramaturgy perspective founder Erving Goffman is the fact that people represent their selves based on their norms, values, and expectations

Dramaturgical perspective shows social interactions as a theatre that reflects the idea of an individual’s life as a stage performance ,the audience expectations and maintenance of role created by the actor.

Symbolism is a literary technique that is used to clarify the author's intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader.

In “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” he explains that there’s no true self especially in front stage situations where the individual is placed on the spot and has to act differently than in back stage situations (Goffman, 1959:114). However, he did not take note of future developments where people can shift from one stage to the other because of social media. It is true that people put on a front in social settings in order to present themselves in a certain way to avoid embarrassment but people are lately more open in being themselves and his views are subjective. That is why there is some controversy when it comes to Goffman’s views. Furthermore, in “Behavior in Public Places” and others, he analyzed that there are social norms people do, handshakes, stay a few feet away from each other, in order to avoid any threats. Lastly, in “Asylums” he explained the idea of total institution where people aren’t necessarily ill but only act that way because of how they’re treated (Goffman, 1961:26). Goffman views, them being rather subjective, does explain why people act the way they