The Waiter's Performed Identity

This character thread traces how the café waiter performs a social role while failing to coincide with it.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Role in Motion

A Role in Motion Precise Gestures The waiter moves too quickly, bends too eagerly, and balances his tray with theatrical precision. His movements seem rehearsed. Social Ceremony The performance makes the occupation appear to be a fixed essence that can be displayed for customers and society.

Playing the Waiter

Playing the Waiter Role as Game The waiter is playing at being a waiter. Like a child exploring his body, he investigates and marks out his social condition. The Gap He can never be a waiter as an inkwell is an inkwell. His consciousness exceeds the role it performs.

Duties and Rights

Duties and Rights Objective Definitions The waiter knows the hours, duties, tips, and union rights attached to his position. These definitions describe a person for others. Freedom Beyond the Role They do not establish his being for himself. He may fulfill the job yet remain separated from it by nothingness.

The Impossible Inkwell

The Impossible Inkwell Being as Performance The waiter tries to realize an in-itself identity, as though he were a thing completely coincident with his function. Exposure His exaggerated ceremony reveals that the identity is impossible. He is a waiter only by playing at being one.

A Role Among Many

A Role Among Many Situation The person is genuinely situated in a job and social world, but those conditions do not mechanically define the person. Responsibility The role is both facticity and a freely assumed meaning. Neither a fixed essence nor a pure invention explains the waiter completely.

Part One, Chapter Two, Section II, opening of the waiter example

Part One, Chapter Two, Section II, during the description

Part One, Chapter Two, Section II, after the role is identified

Part One, Chapter Two, Section II, conclusion of the example

Part Two, Chapter One, facticity discussion