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Attractiveness In Dunbar's 'We Wear The Mask'

364 Words2 Pages
The more complex form of We Wear the Mask reflects the content, as the poem’s message is also more complex. We Wear the Mask is a study of blackness instead of the exploitation of it as seen in his dialect poetry. It addresses an effect of double consciousness, seeing one’s self through the eyes of white society, as well as Dunbar’s tendency to portray what’s he sees there in his dialect poetry. The first line of Dunbar’s We Wear the Mask, describes a mask that “grins and lies” (1043). It “lies,” it is not truthful and does not accurately depict the wearer. The mask is worn for the white audience, and it depicts what they want to see. This act of wearing a mask to look as white society would like you to takes Du Bois’ double-consciousness
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