We Wear The Mask Literary Devices

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.

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

In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B DuBois pioneers two concepts that describe the Black experience in America— the notions of “the veil” and “double-consciousness.” The meaning and implication of these words not only describe the plight of being Black and American then, it also refers to what it means to still be Black and American today – the remnants of the past live on. DuBois explains the veil concept in reference to three things: the literal darker skin of Blacks, which is the physical demarcation of the difference from whiteness, white people’s lack of clarity in order to see Blacks as “true” Americans, and lastly Blacks’ lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white America prescribes for them. The idea of double consciousness refers to the two-ness, caused by our nations flawed and polarized system, felt by many Blacks. I argue that although DuBois was the first to coin these two terms, it is clear through analyzing Uncle Tom’s Cabin and 12 Years a Slave that these two significant concepts gave a name to what African-Americans had been feeling for years but previously could not define.

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.

“In Defense of Masks”, by Kenneth Gergen regards that it is not possible for humans to adequately find a coherent self identity without an aftermath. Gergen states, “to the extent that they do, they many experience severe emotional distress” when trying to do so (172). He refers to Erik Erickson, a psychologist who speaks about how self-alienation can result due to the pressures of society to individuals with various masks of identity.

What are masks? One usually thinks it is an object the individual puts on and takes off.

Many individuals are often alienated from society. One of many causes can be racism. The alienation caused by racism can affect individuals and society. Due to their race, they were discriminated and led to racial inequality. This can all be depicted in “Incident” by Countee Cullen, “ A Black Man Talks of Reaping” by Arna Bontemps, and “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In “Incident”, a young African American is called a racial slur because of her physical appearance. Also, “A Black Man Talks of Reaping”, describes how a black man is discriminated and face racial inequality. Lastly, in “We Wear the Mask” shows how blacks had to hide their true identity because they were colored and did not fit in society. In all three text of Cullen, Bontemps, and Dunbar all show how racism can make an individual feel alienated.

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”.

Both Langston Hughes “Harlem” and Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” look to analyze the human unconsciousness, and deprivation of happiness while also giving off this sense of subtle honesty. Though the two authors may have shared common aspects of their culture and history they have given two completely different perspectives of this dream. Hughes does his best to leave these ideas open to his audiences interpretation while in managing to hint to us this kind of self-destruction. On the other hand Dunbar just give us these emotional bonds that leave his audience clinging to his every word.

Deceit, Betrayal, and Resentment When going through life, individuals are put into difficult and stressful situations. To get out of this predicament, the individual would resort to using deceptive and deceitful behavior which would ultimately lead to betrayal. In the words of Paul Laurence Dunbar in the poem “We Wear the Mask,” he believes “We wear the mask that grins and lies, / … This debt we pay to human guile;” (534: lines 1-3). This means that people hide his or her true emotions to disguise what they are feeling.

He or she understood that his or her opinions never mattered to the master due to not appearing on the same level as a result of skin color. Nevertheless, during that time period whites remained superior while black found themselves inferior and constantly reminded of the fact. The poem “We Wear the Masks”, one of Dunbar’s most famous poems, distinctly showcased the vast separation that make African Americans seem like outsiders. Blacks would find themselves displaying “myriad subtleties” (“We Wear the Masks” 5) to avoid offending whites and/or provoking retaliation. Dunbar wished to outline just how corrupt society in reality actually functioned in which African Americans feared daily life.

He suggests that they believed the people with power should see what they want them to see. They never expressed their true feelings. From the beginning, African- Americans have been represented in a false way to the society. As Daly Guilamo emphasizes in his article “Paul Laurence Dunbar and Juan Bosch Converse on Racial Violence: Writing Justice and Injustice” that “Paul Laurence Dunbar uses the guise of white American guilt to portray lynching as a racist tradition that is outdated and incompatible with modernism.” (p. 22). Daly Guilamo article emphasizes about how people should have given them the respect they deserved even as slaves. Moreover, Dunbar knew that words are more powerful than any other thing in this world. Just as Joanne Gabbin, states in his article “Intimate Intercessions in the Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar” that “the Biblical figure who helped to establish the Christian church, Dunbar took seriously his parents' charge to be a great man who would carry the word to his people” (p. 227). “We wear the mask” expresses every bit of expression that African- Americans, slaves have felt. It contributes to cultural ideas and expectations to the society in the form of expression. It promotes the values of African- Americans having rights to freely express themselves, but they couldn’t. It supports the idea that slaves were hiding their emotions because they felt it was the best way to get away from the

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