Reading Critique 1

‘Life is like a play’is actually a famous phrase in the Chinese culture too. All

of us have to carry out different kinds of performances correctly and successfully so

as to avoid being laughed or discriminated. Front, the expressive equipment, plays a

very important part in carrying out our performances.

According to Erving Goffman, the standard parts of front can be divided into

setting, appearance and manner. Setting involves furniture, decor physical layout and

other background items which supply the scenery and stage props for various

performances. Appearance and manner are both related to the performers. Appearance

may be taken to refer to those stimuli which function at the time to tell us of the

performer's social statuses. It also tells us the individual's temporary ritual state.

Manner may be taken to refer to those stimuli which function at the time to warn us of

the interaction role the performer will expect to play in the oncoming situation. People

often expect a consistency between appearance and manner. For example, a man

dressing in a formal way are expected to drink a bowl of soup with very low voice in a

high class restaurant. A man holding a newspaper in his hand is expected to talk loudly

in a Chinese restaurant. But appearance and manner may sometimes tend to

contradict each other. I’d like to tell a story about this situation. Once I saw a couple,

both wore a suit, arguing for something at the street. Their dressings showed that they

belonged to the middle class. Then, the man suddenly shouted at his girlfriend, took

out his mobile phone and threw it onto the floor. He ran away immediately afterwards.

So, I’d like to say that the inconsistency between appearance and manner also

depends on the emotion of the performers.

In reality, front is not selected, but created. When we take on an established

social role, it is usually the fact that a particular front has already been established for

it or there are already several well-established fronts among which we must choose.

Though different cultures have different social rules, fronts should be selected

carefully in order to do ‘being normal’ and show our social roles or statuses. This

passage enables me to realize more about front and the concept does apply to my

daily life. Therefore, I should act and look like a university student at school, act and

look like a good son at home, act and look like a telebet operator in the Jockey Club!

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