Symbolism In Paul Laurence Dunbar's 'They Wear The Mask'

In Semester One of the 2014-2015 school year, our Jr. Honors English class has read many texts that have a simple meaning, and some that can mean more when read deeper than just the surface. Three of my favorite texts from Semester One are Paul Dunbar’s “We Wear a Mask,” Edwin Robinson’s “Richard Cory,” and Edgar Masters’ “Lucinda Matlock.” “We Wear a Mask” is one of my favorite texts from the beginning of our school year because it means to show that the racial differences weren’t settled for a long time even after the American Civil War. I enjoy “Richard Cory” because its meaning is the base of the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” “Lucinda Matlock” is another one of my favorites because it reminds me of the fact that all I do is

It speaks of how African Americans have to hide behind a mask that hides all their sorrow and pain. Dunbar questions why we have to wear the mask, “Why should the world be overwise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask.”(918). He speaks of how all of this should not be happening but in the end everyone is still hiding who they are and what they are really feeling. This poem could account for more than just African Americans. Everyone has worn a mask at one point in their lives but the real question is why? Temptations like in “Wife of His Youth” or to get away like in “’Member Youse a Nigger” have had major effects on people and their lives. Being an African American was a hard life for a long time because slavery and the civil war cause many deaths and many families to be broken

Helping making the theme of this poem clear that many blacks wore a mask that suggested happiness and contentment, but concealed

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 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.

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

The poem “Mask” by Matt illustrates about a young child going through hardships between his friends. I was inspired by the poem to create a visualization because I was emotionally touched with his expressions about the fake mask. When I was young, I traveled to many different places in China and Korea because of my dad’s work. I had to adapt to new environments and it made me feel alone and empty deep inside. Therefore, it was easier for me to understand and personally connect my experience to his.

The figurative language in a given poem usually correlates to the theme and, nevertheless, gives it personality in some way. In “We Wear the Mask,” the figurative language is darker, ordinarily connecting it to the theme of hiding your true feelings behind your “mask”. The writer, Paul Laurence Dunbar, uses personification the most in his poem, moreover, creating an image that correlates with the theme. Personification most easily creates an image that the writer can shape to connect with the theme. Dunbar uses this personification in a darker way, to connect with the more serious theme of hiding your feelings behind your imperceptible “mask”. “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,” is personifying the mask (Lines 1-2). Since this poem is mainly about hiding behind our alleged mask, it seems reasonable that Dunbar would personify the mask. Since he did so, the mask is given another level of depth that allows us to see the mask as the main object of the theme. The theme is developed by using this personification of the mask. Although diction and figurative language are important for developing the theme, they are not the only structure elements that can do

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 this poem, Dunbar uses iambic tetrameter, refrain, and sound repetition in order to drive home his point. Dunbar is saying that despite the cruelties African Americans suffer they cant let their oppressors see them falter and must continue to work diligently towards equality. The iambic tetrameter keeps the poem slowly and steadily moving forward, reflecting African Americans slowly moving towards equality. The refrain of “We wear the mask,” strengthens and reinforces Dunbar’s call to keep moving forward.

We Wear The Mask was written in 1886 with post slavery America being the significant historical backdrop. In this poem, Dunbar explores the duality of experience of African American's at this time. The outward experience presented to the world at large - “We wear the mask that grins and lies” - versus the inward truth of suffering and turmoil - “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile”.

The poems “We Wear the Mask” and “Sympathy” by Paul Dunbar both symbolize oppressed black Americans and tell of the suffering that they endured. In his poem Dunbar uses dramatic, descriptive and symbolic language to portray images in his poetry of the pointless prejudices and racism that African Americans faced in America during the Harlem Renaissance. In the poem “We Wear the Mask, the mask wearers did not want the world to focus on what was really happening. They wanted to take the spotlight off of the pain and struggle and redirect it towards the hope and strength that the individuals had within. Just because they were not allowed equal rights and liberties, they refused to let that dictate their joy, happiness and peace.

Although the form enhances each poem, the symbols and allusions enrich them even more. Both the sonnet and rondeau contain many symbols and some encompass different meanings for different readers. In “We Wear the Mask”, the mask referred to throughout the poem can easily be identified as the act of mankind hiding their true emotions when it says in the second line, “It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” (Dunbar 818). The mask is not literally meant to cover the face of men, but to hide their true feelings that they do not want society to see. Line four says, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile”, but the author does not mean their organs are physically harmed (818). The heart is a symbol for the thoughts and sentiments of the inner man and at this point they are suffering. The poet includes himself with the group of people by using the pronoun “we” throughout. Who else is involved in this assembly? When I first read the poem, I perceived that the author was referring to all humanity, but after studying the context of when this was written, I realized he could also be referring to African Americans who were suffering

The rhetorical effect of this poem is it emphasizes that African Americans have to wear a mask because the people around them don’t let them show their true feelings. Before the Civil Rights Movement, blacks had no voice and could not speak their opinions. The rhetorical devices do very well to help meet the rhetorical

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