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

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 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.

Alliteration and metaphors are two major elements of this poem. The repetition of consonant sounds and alliteration occurs throughout the poem. All of the lines strongly use the repetition of consonants and alliteration except for lines two and seven. In addition to that, the controlling figure of speech in this poem is a metaphor. It is strongly articulated in the first line, and as the one continues to read, it is amplified and extended throughout the rest of the poem. The metaphor compares mask of Line 1 to the fabricated emotive facades that African-Americans had made use of in order to avert provoking their oppressors.

As an African American author in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Jim Crow laws prevailed and “separate but equal” was considered constitutional, Paul Laurence Dunbar attempted to display the feelings of African Americans. Dunbar said that he wanted “to interpret my own people through song and story and prove to the many that we are more human than African” (Baym and Levine). In his poems “We Wear the Mask” and “Sympathy”, Dunbar skillfully revealed the discontent of blacks facing unjust treatment by using metaphor and imagery. The author extracted from his own experiences and family history in an endeavor to express the condition of his entire race in this grueling period.

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

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”.

While reading the poem, “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, I was taken aback by how connected it was to what I just read. It shows just a glimpse into the deep wounds that were left by the stereotypical depictions of black caricatures. Dunbar uses specific language to get straight to the point with the very first line of the poem, “we wear the mask, that grins and lies” ( ). His quick use of the word mask, is as much literal as it is metaphorical. Whether behind a painted face, a physical mask or just a smile, the person is concealing part of themselves.

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

Lastly, oppression is shown by how minorities know how each class behaves. The investigation has shown that “It is crazy when you go an event and there to be a majority white people there as soon as black people come around that get to moving out of the way. They already know what is going to happen”(examples of minorities knows each class behave”). It is talking about the way black people behave and white people behave they are both totally different but they must be treated equally. The black people are treated unfairly and Whites do not. From the article “we wear the mask” it states that “we wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, This debt we pay to human guile, with turn and bleeding hearts we smile”

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask,” exposes the deception of a grin and the truth that lies behind it and demonstrates that Gatsby used his materials and wealth to fit into society. In the poem Dunbar implies that the mask is a facade that conceals the true emotion of someone. Gatsby masked his true persona and identified himself wearing a mask of wealth and materials. The mask gives power to the powerless but at the same time it allows people to live within a lie.

Quiet Cries In the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the great poet explains how most people treat others who are different from them, either by race or origin. . Some people pretend to be someone else around others and choose to repress their emotions and thoughts. Paul Laurence Dunbar was an African American poet. His parents were slaves and were placed in harsh conditions, but they always taught him to be strong, “with torn bleeding hearts we smile” (Dunbar, 4).

The poem We Wear The Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar conceals the pain and suffer of slaves in the 1870s. Paul Laurence Dunbar created this poetry around the exact time period were former slaves was seeking civil rights and equality in America. Dunbar symbolism of the mask focused towards one’s true feelings underlying the unhappiness, disparity, and hopelessness. Furthermore, it brought to light how slaves would hide their affliction to show their perseverance towards the white oppressor. I believe that Dunbar displayed the mask as two-sided by portraying that hiding the truth as wrong and others viewing hiding the truth as the best to do.

In the poem “We Wear the Mask”, Paul Laurence Dunbar directs his readers more towards the African American community during the period of slavery and even in his own lifetime. He goes as far as talking about the trials and tribulations the people of color had undergone, but he made sure to share to his readers in this poem; the way Blacks had kept their sanity and composure through the time wear discrimination, prejudice, and inequality was at its peak, which was to wear the “mask”. “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” (1-2). These first two powerful lines in this 15-line poem, implies how Black’s would hide behind false smiles or better yet, “pretend faces” to hide their true feelings and expressions

I enjoyed reading “We Wear The Mask”. It was fun to analyze and break down the poem. I could relate this poem is many ways. I have felt the need to wear a “mask” in many social settings. One example would be when I first started going to church.