The Truman Show Vs. The Poser

“The world, in truth, is a wedding” (Goffman, 35). When Goffman says this, he is not implying that life is all about the after party; instead he is saying life is a tremendous performance. At a wedding, everyone is given a role, and this role has expectations on how to dress, where to stand, when to speak, etc. In both The Truman Show and The Poser, the art of performing plays a substantial role in the plots of the stories, but from different perspectives. The message that these two pieces are proposing is that life is a performance, whether we are aware of it or not, but they help us realize it with the help of exaggerating these performances. The Truman Show delves more into the act of other’s performances affecting somebody, while The Poser

In The Poser, Giovanni has an issue where he cannot speak with his own self; he constantly resorts to impersonating others, and he does this by finding their thread. He has this ability because of his extreme capacity for empathy. “He’s just sympathetic to the bone”(Rubin, 14), says Mama, talking about his talent to sincerely put on the performances of others. Although others view this skill as a spectacle, the majority of the people in his life see it as a problem, since he can never simply be his true self. This situation that Giovanni finds himself in relates to Goffman’s view on performances. According to him, we are putting on a performance all day, every day, no matter what situation we are in. Goffman describes life as a theater with the speaker as the actor, and who is listening as the audience. The actor can then put on different masks, and it is his or her job to convince the audience that the act, or front, is genuine. In reality, a front may be a boss, or a dad, or any other role that a person may have, whether genuine or not. Giovanni’s fronts, although impersonations of others, are absolutely genuine. Following our rolls is not always a conscious decision, but more of an unconscious awareness of what our roles are, and where we fit in

In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank lives a pretty normal life, to his knowledge. He has been on a television show since birth, and every single person in his life has been an actor, in the literal sense. Truman of course does not know this, since “We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented” (The Truman Show). Growing up in this false reality, Truman has no choice but to accept it as the truth. As the ultimate truth slowly begins to unfold, and stress begins to build for the actors, some characters begin to crack. Johnson says that a person’s insincere act will be easily detected when the actor is “‘on stage’ for long periods of time under demandingly high levels of stress”(Johnson, 62). Truman’s wife, Meryl, has this breakdown as her stress levels increase. She sobs into Marlon’s arms, saying, “How can anyone expect me to carry on under these conditions? This is ...unprofessional” (The Truman Show). This quote proves Johnson’s point to be true, since she doesn’t truly see herself has Truman’s wife, her act is eventually discovered. On the other hand, there are some great performers that truly convince Truman that they are not a part of the lies. Marlon, for example, does a great job lying to Truman when he begins to lose faith in everyone, convincing him to go back to his normal life. “And the last thing I would ever do is lie to