Belief in the part one is playing

• On page 19, the author cites Park’s idea of a personal mask. Do you agree that this “mask” is what we strive to be, and that this “mask” is more us then we truly are? (SM)

• In reference to Goffmans’s description of the mask on pages 19 and 20, how does this reading relate to the statement in Gilgamesh “all men are liars”? (PW)

• Page 20, paragraph 2
I thought his is a really great example of “Disbelief-to-belief.” (WF)

• Does being cynical really change a person goals and beliefs? page 20 (ChS)

Front

• On page 22 in the second paragraph, the author writes about settings that dictate how people act. Can a certain group of people act as a setting for someone? (BF)

• We expect coherence between appearance and manner, as well as between these and the setting. p. 22.
Do our appearences, manners, and settings rarely actually go together? (DM)

• p. 25 The contradiction between appearance and manner. (CS)

Dramatic realization

• I want to talk about the practical meaning of the following phenomenon:
“When a group or class is examined, one finds that the members of it tend to invest their egos primarily in certain routines, giving less stress to the other ones which they perform.” (pg.33) (PY)

Idealization

• What could Cooley mean when he says “train ourselves from the outside inward” in his excerpt? (page 35) (AR)

• I would like to discuss a quote on page 35. It can be found after Cooley’s view. (JC)

• My discussion topic is social class and status symbols in America. Pages 36-37 (AW)

• How does Goffman’s idea of “secret consumption” relate to the section Idealization? (Idealization starts on 34 and secret consumption is introduced on 41) (EA)