Dramaturgy of Grown Up

Introduction
Many people in life, present themselves to society in a manner in which they want to be seen. Maybe an employee wants to be seen as a hard working person, so when the supervisor is around, they might act busy. Or sometimes, when a person wants to be accepted, they present certain attributes to make them look good. Erving Goffman believed that “we present a certain self or face when in the presence of others”. He called these actions the key concepts of dramaturgy. The movie Grown Ups provides many examples of these key concepts.
Grow Ups tells the story of a group of five childhood friends who where in a basketball team when they were 12 years old. Thirty years later, they reunite for the funeral of their admired basketball coach, and for a weekend vacation at a lake house. They each bring their families along, and have their different sets of problems they are going through. One of the grown ups is Lenny, who is a Hollywood agent, and has a lot of money. On the other hand, another one of the grown ups, Eric, has gained a lot of weight and just lost his job. Eric does not want the group to know of the situation he is going though. Therefore, throughout the movie, Eric acts and tries to present himself as a rich person. He does this by setting up a front stage with many sign vehicles. The use of dramaturgy is greatly seen in Eric.
Front Stage and Sign Vehicles
One of the key concepts of dramaturgy that Goffman states is the front stage. The front stage is where all the acting is done. This is where the person uses different props to portray themselves to the audience. In Grown Ups, Eric presented himself to the group as a person with money. He does this mostly by using sign vehicles. When on the front stage, peopl...

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...erson they want to be perceived as. This does not always mean that they present a fake side of them. Sometimes people might present their true selves to others. However in this movie, Eric used sign vehicles to manipulate and show a modified version of who he really was. On the front stage, he was a man with money, a good job, and amazing car. On the back stage, he had just lost his job. In the end of the movie, Eric finally admitted to everyone of his true identity. He no longer had to show a false self on the front stage, and could now act like his true self. In society, people tend to always use the key concepts of dramaturgy in their daily lives. During the everyday interactions, humans use various costumes to fit in with other. The movie Grown Ups, showed this concept in the character Eric, who wanted to be accepted and known as the rich guy among his friends.