We Wear The Mask Personification

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

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.

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

Poetry has always been a mirror to see unseen emotions and to hear unheard thoughts. Magical words used in an artistic way allows the reader to feel what the poet is feeling, to listen what the poet is listening and to share what the poet is going through. The two poems “I’m Nobody! Who are You?” by Emily Dickinson, and “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar are two classical works of poetry. While Dunbar shares agonizing experience of an entire community, Dickinson shares her thoughts about individual characteristic and personality; in fact, she cleverly wins the case of an introvert. Both these poems are independent of each other in terms of thought as well as from literary perspective.

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.

The depiction black struggles within Dunbar’s dialect poetry makes Dunbar’s poetry beneficial for the black race. For example, in “An Ante-bellum Sermon,” when Dunbar writes “But when Moses wif his powah Comes an' sets us chillun free, We will praise de gracious Mastah, Dat has gin us liberty; An' we'll shout ouah halleluyahs, On dat mighty reck'nin' day, When we'se reco'nised ez citiz', Huh uh! Chillun, let us pray!”, he is depicting a common feeling of African Americans. Although this poem takes place before the Civil War, and before Dunbar’s birth, both of Dunbar’s parents were ex-slaves, which gave him an understanding of slavery. With an understanding of slavery, Dunbar was able to depict the desire for slaves to be rid of the unjust system. Beyond that, the idea is still applicable to the time in which he lived. From one issue to another, people anticipate equality while in dire situations. Similarly, in “Song,” Dunbar depicts the harmful race relations from his time. Instead of the black experience being told from a sympathizer perspective, Dunbar has a better understanding of what it was like to be black in the 1890s. The competition and hate between flowers symbolizes the conflict between white and black people. Through this metaphor, especially at the end when they celebrate the death of all daisies when he writes “In de fiel’ de flags is wavin’ in a tantalizing’ way, Kin o’ ‘joicin’ case de daisies all is daid,” Dunbar depicts the hateful race relations of his time. Dunbar’s representation of black issues brings attention to them, which benefits African Americans.

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

The figurative language in a given poem usually correlates to the theme and, nevertheless, gives it personality in some way. In “We Wear the Mask,” the figurative language is darker, ordinarily connecting it to the theme of hiding your true feelings behind your “mask”. The writer, Paul Laurence Dunbar, uses personification the most in his poem, moreover, creating an image that correlates with the theme. Personification most easily creates an image that the writer can shape to connect with the theme. Dunbar uses this personification in a darker way, to connect with the more serious theme of hiding your feelings behind your imperceptible “mask”. “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,” is personifying the mask (Lines 1-2). Since this poem is mainly about hiding behind our alleged mask, it seems reasonable that Dunbar would personify the mask. Since he did so, the mask is given another level of depth that allows us to see the mask as the main object of the theme. The theme is developed by using this personification of the mask. Although diction and figurative language are important for developing the theme, they are not the only structure elements that can do

When given the thought, one makes the comparison that masks are used to describe our

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”.

Ever since 1600s when William Shakespeare described the whole world as “a stage” and “all the men and women merely players”, the idea of people wearing masks and hiding their true feelings has been present in literature in one way or another. In the late 1800s, Paul Laurence Dunbar publishes “We wear the mask”, a poem that focuses on people hiding their true feelings from others and everyone can relate. Unlike Dunbar who talks about different kinds of emotional masks people use, Edwin Arlington Robinson uses his “Richard Cory” to draw attention to a mask of money and success, which makes the average people (“we people”) admire and idealize the successful person (Richard Cory) only because we do not know and do not even try to see what is hidden behind the mask. In just 4 stanzas and 16 lines, Edwin Arlington Robinson tells a meaningful and timeless story about misfortune of Richard Cory, a person behind the mask of money and success who seemingly has everything anyone could wish for.

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

Dunbar opens his poem with “We wear the mask,” to draw in any type of

The poem shows how he incorporates his testimonies into his poetry. “ We Wear the Mask” is a lyrical poem about the suffering of blacks, and how they wear a mask so that the world will never know. This is about Dunbar’s life because he is African-American, and his own sufferings are like that of slaves. Dunbar grew up poor, and his father left never to return. This caused a void in his life because he did not have a father figure.