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

Everybody has experienced emotions. Everyone at one point or another in life have hid from emotions; by putting on a false expression to mask the feeling of embarrassment, shame, pain or fear. Like the saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” by Bo Diddley. Don’t assume the happy, jubilant, joyous expressions that someone is expressing is real. Emotions are part of everyday life, but not everyone feels the need to express themselves honestly. In the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the mask symbolizes the imaginary wall slaves hide behind for survival. Although, the slaves are unhappy, they feel the need to smile and act accordingly. The military teaches their men and women how to keep their emotions under control; to prepare them for combat, possible capture, or the loss of a soldier. Although hiding emotions and expressions may sound brutal, being expressionless is necessary in order to survive.

Dunbar’s overall statement in We Wear the Mask is that these African-Americans, including himself, not once revealed all of the sadness, anger, and agony they went through; they simply smiled and faked their happiness while they were anguished and hurting inside, probably to avoid provoking conflict with Caucasian groups of people. The purpose of this title was to inform the reader of the exasperating struggle African-Americans had to endure during this period of time due to race inequality, all in a total of three stanzas and 15

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

To help Year Twelve students that are studying poetry appreciate it's value, this pamphlet's aim is to discuss a classic poem and a

“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.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first black poets in his time to confront the hypocrisy he saw around him. “We wear the mask” was one of his outstanding works that addressed racial injustices in

Paul Laurence Dunbar, in “We Wear The Mask”, talks about the “mask” he and others are forced to wear to provide an illusion of happiness, and cover up their real emotions from the rest of the world. Dunbar asks the rhetorical question of why the world should know their true emotions and be “over-wise” in counting their tears and sighs. He answers his own question by saying that they should only let them see them with their masks on. He concludes, by calling onto a higher power, exclaiming that the higher power is the only one that knows their true emotions, but he wants the rest of the world to believe otherwise. Both these poems, although different in situations, address the issues of social ignorance and standards by using metaphorical symbols and wording.

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 by Paul Dunbar and Harlem by Langston Hughes have similarities. In my mind, the use of figurative language resides in both thinkers conceive of being a person of color in America. For Dunbar, the use of the “mask” is designed to conceal the pain of being Black in America. The mask is to hide the struggle and frustration that speaks opportunity, but delivers another reality. The use of figurative language is designed to present that a dual consciousness plagues people of color for one part of their identity seeks to believe the promises and possibilities of America while another fully understands the despair and denial within it. The mask is employed as a metaphor to convey both experiences.

In “We Wear the Mask”, Dunbar primarily employs the rhetorical device of metaphorical allusion to give the reader a sense of how African-Americans navigated socially in a traditionally white supremacist, patriarchal society. He begins his poem, with “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides are cheeks and shades our eyes” (Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”). Here, he employs the use of the mask to elaborate on the “double-consciousness” that African-Americans had to exhibit in order to function during that tumultuous

“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar uses three major literary elements: metaphor, diction and rhythm, in order to illuminate the importance of the mask African Americans use. Word choice in this poem starts off as unsettling and sadening using words as, “grins and lies”, “hides”, “human guile”, “torn and bleeding”,as well as, “tears and sighs”. These words used in stanza one and two, show what the mask hides but also what that person is really feeling behind that mask of lies. In order to sustain peace and harmony, sometimes that mask needs to be worn, hiding true emotion. In the last stanza, the diction is switched to a hopeful and “rise up” type of attitude.

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear The Mask” cleverly talks of the black condition in a language so universal that it could apply to any race of people that tries to hide their emotions from the world in order to survive.

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and