We Wear The Mask

The poem also uses end rhyme to add a certain rhythm to the poem as a whole. And the scheme he employs: aabbc, aabd, aabbad. End rhyme, in this poem, serves to effectively pull the reader through to the end of the poem. By pairing it with lines restricted to eight syllables. The narrator creates an almost nursery-rhyme like rhythm. In his third stanza however, his last line, cutting short of eight syllables, stands with an emphatic four syllables. Again, in the last stanza, he utilizes the same technique for the last line of the poem. The narrator’s awareness of rhyme and syllable structure provides the perfect bone structure for his poem’s rhythm.

Brooks makes great use of rhyme throughout the poem. She uses words such as "cool", "school", "sin", and "gin." These are external rhymes which appear at the end of lines. The rhyme scheme used compliments the theme, since it is the directed towards a young audience. The reason we know that Brooks is trying to attract a young crowd is because she is talking about youth who are suppose to be attending school. The poem is given an up tempo beat, almost like a rap. This rap like sound may also help attract young readers.

Another way Dunbar criticizes his inability to escape the brand of a Dialect poet is in the structure of the poem. About three quarters of the poem is Dunbar speaking about his standard English works.

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.

This proves Gergen’s thesis, “I doubt that people normally develop a coherent sense of identity, and believe that to the extent that they do, they may experience serve emotional distress” (172). By having several masks or selves, is how we are able to adapt to changing society. With these multiple masks we are able to achieve acceptance and know who we are as individuals. Throughout life we must adopt masks when facing different circumstances; it is through these masks that we see how we change as individuals. If we spend our lives trying to stick to one mask, we can find ourselves to feel lost, depressed, or invisible. Change is good; however we must still stay true to ourselves when using masks. They are a part of us as individuals but they are not us.

In Dunbar’s We Wear the Mask it is showing how Blacks are agreeing to wear the mask but underneath that mask they are planning. This is shows when he says “Nay, let them only see us, while/ We wear the mask.” Dunbar is displaying how Blacks only wanted white people to see them with the mask on and they don’t want to be seen making plans on how to overcome discrimination. But by the end Blacks are taking off the mask to show their fight. This can be paralleled with Still I Rise because Angelou is more in your face and it shows how she has ripped the mask off and is speaking her mind. The speaker has power and confidence to overcome discrimination. This is exemplified when Angelou says “Did you want to see me broken? /Bowed head and lowered eyes?” The speaker is mocking white people in saying how Blacks should act, but really they are done conforming to what Whites want and fighting for equality. In both poems the mask shows the evolution of Blacks and how they overcame

In many occasions, people mask their true emotions in order to complete a goal. In “We Wear the Mask”, written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the speaker explains the mask they must wear to “move past” the oppression the black community faces on a daily basis. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, Jim, an escaped slave, began running away with Huckleberry “Huck” Finn, a young, white boy, after they ran into each other in the woods, both wanting to find freedom. Both Paul Laurence Dunbar and Mark Twain utilize the mask, or masking emotions, to show the way many people attempt to reach their goals.

Which is also the role the play in Dunbar’s poem. The mask is a way to represent the ways in which people hide and lie about what they are actually feeling underneath. Dunbar is also trying to inform us that masks are a way of self-preservation. The speaker of this poem seems to be very laid back and calm while discussing this, he seems to be at peace or have accepted that this is the way in which things are. It is also never clearly stated if the speaker is male or female, it is just assumed that the speaker is a “he”, this leaves it open to a universal voice, so that it is not specifically limited to any one individual or group of individuals feeling this way.

The poem has 14 stanzas. There are no rhymes in this poem, it is written in free form. Similes are being used in this poem such as: “Like my feelings-it’s lonely feeling like a saint.” This line describes how the persona’s feels lonely because he wants to fit in and be like everyone else and fit in, so he acts mean, when in actual reality, he is not mean. Another simile is: “Like your waistline that exists a little too much, like my hairline that doesn’t exist at all!”

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.

In the poem, Dunbar inserts several different words that relate to pain or hurt. I believe the reason why he put these words in her is to show the emotions of african americans at that time, and they could not do anything about it. While the reader is reading the poem, they will catch on every quickly and recognize the painful

The mask I wear is one that sings and smiles about all things. My mask covers many of my downfalls and scars from past time that wish could go a far. It’s like a veil or curtain that hides the actor or the bride before they put on a show. My mask is happiness but I do not wear it all the time. I try to hide struggle-some bind and think that everything is okay so I can go on and live another day. Mainly because the speedbumps and struggle will just get in my way. I like to think of myself as happy inside but most of the time I just want to lay back and cry. But when the mask is on I cannot run or hide because off my face I would have to pry. Like a poor little caged bird just wanting to fly. Maya Angelou said in “Caged Bird” “The caged bird sing with fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still” I feel like with the mask I can seek after “thrill” but not have to face the problems I feel.

The poem begins and ends with “We wear the mask”. The author’s rhetorical purpose in this is to make sure that line sticks with the reader. It’s the opening line to pull the reader in because they’re curious about what the author means, and it’s the ending line to make sure it stays in the reader’s mind even after they read the

Claim When people mask themselves they turn into anything they want to be when they have the mask on. When people mask themselves they turn into something that they are really not and they could start to act different.

Note that Dunbar also uses rhyme as a bowling pin in this poem. He sets up the rhyme scheme, only to knock it down with a jarring interruption that doesn't fit the flow of his AABB rhythm. The interruption is what truly enhances the experience for the reader because it acts as a blaring reminder that no matter how much pain and agony the speaker goes through, he still must wear a mask. However, the poem is more nuanced than it appears. Dunbar uses the meaning of his poem not to describe just anyone, but a specific group of people. He's really talking about the pain that black people went through during the 19th century, and how they were forced to hide their pain from