The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Literary Elements

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Genre

Sociology, Nonfiction

Setting and Context

20th Century

Narrator and Point of View

Third-personal narrator

Tone and Mood

Critical, observational, analytical, sociological, and scholarly

Protagonist and Antagonist

Goffman dissects the social behaviours of humanity in general.

Major Conflict

Description of inherent tendencies in the course of ordinary social interactions among human beings.

Climax

A climax is absent in this nonfiction work.

Foreshadowing

N/A

Understatement

Friendships are understated when Goffman argues that friends depict various behaviours in the presence versus behind their friends’ backs. Friendships are founded on acting.

Allusions

Sociological allusions

Imagery

Interactions among human beings are governed by acting and ‘impression management.'

Paradox

Things that are usually highly prized are not necessarily high quality. The high prices give customers an impression of 'perceived status.'

Parallelism

Social interactions are likened to acting in archetypal theatres.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Masks denote facades.
Costumes denote acting.

Personification

N/A

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