The Language of the Black Condition and All Conditions: Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask”

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

Dunbar wrote in black dialect also, although it wasn’t his ideal way of writing. His readers favored his poems in black dialect instead of his preferred way of standard English so in spite of his success he was disappointed that his greatest gift had gone unappreciated. The need to survive financially in the literary world had forced him to compromise his talent. Dunbar often wrote about the difficulties the black race encountered and the ongoing race for equality in America; a subject Wheatley rarely touched in her poems.

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

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.

Ultimately, since Dunbar avoids specifically mentioning blacks and their suffering, with the history of this poem in mind, this poem could stand as a lament on behalf of all of the individuals who were forcefully made to wear a “mask” just as a girl who tries to hide her pregnancy from her parents, or as a boy who

Paul Laurence Dunbar is another great poet of the Harlem Renaissance Era, Writing about equality and the lack there of for the African American brothers and sisters. His father served in the 55 regiment Army in Massachusetts when the war broke out between the North and the South inspiring young Paul to write several poems celebrating the role of African American soldiers in winning the Civil War and ending slavery. Paul’s mother fought hard and sacrificed much for him to be able to obtain a good education, he was the only African American in his class at Central High School where he excelled and had many friends. He became the editor of his school paper, was elected president of the literacy club, and was given the honor of composed and presented

Dually Randall and Paul Laurence Dunbar are two African American writers living during the early twentieth century. These men did not know each other, however, they both encountered the same hardship of being an African American living before the civil rights movement. Both men use poems that emphasize sound, structure and imagery to express what they experienced during that harsh time. A careful analysis of “We Wear the Mask” and “Ballad of Birmingham” expose that the shadows cast on their skin has a lasting impression.

Throughout this poem Hughes has placed many symbols in the readers mind to bring the image of the African American people to thought. He reminds African American readers of their origin and what they have been through by using the

Paul Laurence Dunbar is African-American poet who lived from in the late 1880s to the early 1900s. During his life, Dunbar wrote many poems, in both dialect and standard english. However, many of his poems are considered controversial now, due to negative racial stereotypes and dialect. Currently, some believe that Dunbar’s poetry perpetuates harmful stereotypes such as use of dialect; while others believe that it helps break racial stereotypes through the portrayed emotions. Dunbar’s dialect poetry is helpful for African-Americans, because it accurately depicts the experience of African Americans and humanizes them.

In accordance with Du Bois’ definition of double-consciousness, the African American has no true self-consciousness, but does have one that is more true to the self than the other (“the other” here being how one sees one’s self through the eyes of white America). Being that Dunbar was an African American at the turn of the century, one may assume that Dunbar’s dialect poetry is most true to his “self” over his “classical” style, but this is not true. The content and style of Dunbar’s dialect poetry is riddled with incomplete phrasing, poor diction, and is not what he experienced and learned growing up in Dayton, Ohio excelling at an all-white high school. For example, in his dialect poem When Malindy Sings (1897), Dunbar wrote what is assumed to be natural organs as “nachel o’gans.” (1039).

Race plays a big part in this poem. He speaks on Harlem and its culture and this environment but also about mutual interest with people

Slavery had ended, but there was still the backlash against African American social and economic advancement, and lynching was still common. Apart from their own reasons for keeping their feelings to themselves, which Dunbar does explore in this poem, African Americans had good self-preservation incentive to keep the peace as it were.

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

Not caring about things that are not important to you takes you a long way in life. You normally don’t realize what is relevant and significant until something until real and meaningful happens. ‘We Wear the Mask” relates to me because I know what it's like being behind a “mask.” At times I put on an act, so people will try to see me as a happy person when really I'm dying on the inside. Just like Dunbar, I think he could be relating this poem to African Americans.

Every person hides their own secrets and emotions behind a mask. In his work “We Wear the Mask,” Paul Laurence Dunbar composes an intricate poem around this mask that hides emotions and secrets from the public eye. The mask isn’t a literal mask, but rather a figurative mask. The wearer of the mask give off a false perception of who they really are behind the mask. “We Wear the Mask” is remarkably woven with the underlying truths about society and humanity in a way that connects with all readers, by not pointing out who distinctively wears the mask.