We Wear The Mask

African American literature from the Colonial era through Reconstruction shows how African Americans were always treated differently and many of them had to either ignore the awful things the white people said to them, or they had to hide behind a mask of someone everyone tells them to be. One of these incidences of having to just ignore society was in the folktale “’Member Youse a Nigger” when John spend his days keeping quiet and doing only the things that would set him free. While the story “The Wife of His Youth” by Charles Chestnutt and the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar were about the effects that society has on ‘colored’ people. Both stories showing how people feel it is okay to pretend to be someone that they aren’t

In the readings the the veil and mask both symbolize how people treat you when you’re different. In “The Minister’s Black Veil” it shows that the pastor wearing the veil that the people treat him in a rude even disrespectful way, and in the “We Wear the Mask” it also shows the disrespect given to people who are different. In these readings it shows that it’s easier to hide your emotions then share what’s really wrong. They both symbolize wrongs with the people not wanting to hear the full story before judging you, or even judging you at all. They both show a form of rejection for things that they feel necessary or can’t change.

This mask holds back all the sorrow, protects you from being further destroyed by others words or actions, and covers up the real extreme problems people are facing such as suicide and drug overdose. Both texts use these “masks” metaphorically to show how the people protect themselves.

Dunbar and his work were mentioned in major magazines and newspapers. By 1896 Dunbar had published his third collection, but first professionally published volume, Lyrics of Lowly Life. In this volume Dunbar wrote a poem called, “We Wear the Mask.” In the poem, “We Wear the Mask”, lies and deceit, suffering, race, and society and class are used as themes to illustrate the African American life during and before Dunbar’s lifetime. The purpose of this analysis is to explore certain

In the poem, “We Wear the Mask’, the narrator, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, expresses the pain African American experienced during the slave trade and how the slaves learned to suppress their emotions. The poem shows a contrast between African American’s social faces and their “bleeding hearts”. The tone of the poem is not a corrective tone, but rather an explanatory one. In considering the time period, it would make sense that the narrator would be careful about insulting the white community. In the first stanza the tone starts as explanatory in just speaking of the masquerade and state of oppression. Then the last two stanzas are very matter of fact. When the narrator sarcastically states, “Why should the world be otherwise”. Showing

The poem We Wear the Masks by Paul Dunbar is an example of how people hide their feelings due to what others think of them. Like in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, the colored people in town are stereotyped due to their color and looks. The poem states, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” (Dunbar). When people are stereotyped they hide their feelings to make others happy. Wearing the mask is a symbol of how people cover themselves to get away from their feelings.

The Blue Veins exemplify how members of the African American community influence each other to wear Dunbar’s mask. They jointly suppress their true identities in an act of simultaneous self-betrayal and self-preservation. However, communities that wear the mask do have the capability to rise above it: “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile / And mouth with myriad subtleties” (Dunbar 4, 5). These lines mark a significant shift in the poem’s mood and rhyme scheme.

Dunbar opens his poem with “We wear the mask,” to draw in any type of

During this time, Harlem drew black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars. People had come from the South, fleeing oppression in order to find a place where they could freely express their talents. African Americans did manage to succeed in the arts but because of the color of their skin, they faced some problems. The poem “Sonnet To A Negro in Harlem” by Helene Johnson provided this “Why urge ahead your supercilious feet? Scorn will efface each footprint you make” which means that every time a black person succeeds, it will be erases by contempt that whites have towards them. As African Americans become more affluent, they realize that not everyone will accept their triumph so they end up putting up a front or wearing a mask that hides who they truly are. The poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar says “Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us while, We wear the mask” which means why does the world pretend to understand the struggles that blacks have gone through. To avoid that situation, blacks should wear a mask to conceal their difficulties so that everybody else doesn’t need to claim they apprehend their endeavors. These poems show that the roles of African Americans changes from individuals who achieved success to ones who have to hide their

 On the way to this crescendo, Dunbar continues to add depth and breadth to the mask metaphor. “Cheeks and eyes are being hidden, and in “mouth with myriad subtleties” At this point in the poem there is little to lead the reader

Such an example are the poems “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper”. Despite “The Chimney Sweeper” dealing with a child worker’s existential yet joyous realization of mortality and life after death during the English Industrial Revolution, and “We Wear the Mask” being a testament to how African Americans in 19th century United States of America will censor their culture for the comfort of the white people oppressing them, both poems are able to capture the same types of human essence and pain, showing the beauty of literature. The ability of literature to bind people of all times and all places together simply through the emotions each piece is able to portray with the correct author’s intent is what makes literature a beautiful form of

The lyric poem “We wear the mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a poem about the African American race, and how they had to conceal their unhappiness and anger from whites. This poem was written in 1895, which is around the era when slavery was abolished. Dunbar, living in this time period, was able to experience the gruesome effects of racism, hatred and prejudice against blacks at its worst. Using literary techniques such as: alliteration, metaphor, persona, cacophony, apostrophe and paradox, Paul Dunbar’s poem suggests blacks of his time wore masks of smiling faces to hide their true feelings.

Ever since 1600s when William Shakespeare described the whole world as “a stage” and “all the men and women merely players”, the idea of people wearing masks and hiding their true feelings has been present in literature in one way or another. In the late 1800s, Paul Laurence Dunbar publishes “We wear the mask”, a poem that focuses on people hiding their true feelings from others and everyone can relate. Unlike Dunbar who talks about different kinds of emotional masks people use, Edwin Arlington Robinson uses his “Richard Cory” to draw attention to a mask of money and success, which makes the average people (“we people”) admire and idealize the successful person (Richard Cory) only because we do not know and do not even try to see what is hidden behind the mask. In just 4 stanzas and 16 lines, Edwin Arlington Robinson tells a meaningful and timeless story about misfortune of Richard Cory, a person behind the mask of money and success who seemingly has everything anyone could wish for.

Paul Laurence Dunbar, dispatches the cold troubles of African Americans in the lyrical poem, "We Wear the Mask." In this poem, Dunbar links imagery, rhythm, rhyme, and word choice to in order to institute a connection to the reader. From reading the poem, one can infer that Mr. Dunbar is speaking in general, of the misery that many people keep concealed under a grin that they wear very well. But if one were to go further and take the time to research Mr. Dunbar’s selection of this piece and the era of which this poem was written, one would come to understand that this poem focuses entirely on Paul Laurence Dunbar’s viewpoints on racial prejudice and the struggle for equality for the African-American’s of his time period. Though this

Throughout the poem, “We Wear the Mask,” by Paul Dunbar, varied poetic devices are used, and device supports the authors implied theme. As one analyzes the poem, the specific theme that is indicated has to do with racial discrimination and the need to hide culture, ethnicity, and traditions, in order to shield oneself from the hate other would indict upon you. While many poetic devices are presented in this poem, there are three that are used in such a way that supports the main theme entirely; metaphors, rhetorical questions, and hyperboles. One particular and encompassing metaphor is “the mask,” which is meant to represent an African-Americans to, in a sense, hide themselves in order to be accepted. The rhetorical questions used throughout