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I Am Not My Hair Poem Analysis

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By: Divyye Chawra Someone once said in the world that, “In a world where everyone is a mask it is a privilege to see a soul.” This is a quote that explains that if everyone is hiding their true identity then they will not be much at all if we don’t actually see that identity at some point in time. If we “wear a mask” then we are showing that we might be happy and consent with the world and how it could be, but you are not going to be happy inside your heart, you will most probably be sad. When everyone is showing themselves it is inevitably better than not showing an actual representation, and wearing a mask. A mask is an item that many people use at times, but in the end it is harmful towards to the person that is using it. It is …show more content…

In the poem I am Not My Hair, by India Arie, it states, “I am not this skin I am the soul that lives within.” This states that India Arie feels that when she is wearing a mask she is “not herself” and she is not in her skin which means that when she is not wearing a mask she feels that herself, she is in her hair, and she is in control of her own soul. This also shows that the author of this poem might be trying to get control of her own self and that when she is not control of herself than most likely it means that she is wearing a mask. In the poem We Wear the Mask, by Paul Laurence Dunbar, it states, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.” The author of this poem is trying to tell us readers that when you wear a mask you are hiding your personality and even sometimes how you look talk and you could also be changing your persona. Some people might say that when you are wearing a mask you could easily take it off and live your life as it is and deal with your problems. Many people would disagree with the claim of this because it shows that when you wear a mask you could easily take it off when you choose, which is not true because it could be very hard for some people to take the mask off and continue with their

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He wants people to avoid thinking that developing only one true self identity is healthy. A mask allows an individual to see his or her full potential by not having a true identity. Masks have multiple identities based on the certain situations and environments (circumstances) the person is having(undergoing). I agree with Gergens interpretation (assertion) and his psychological

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483 Words | 2 Pages

However, when you take away the mask, the person will try to keep up the reputation they have in public in order to be socially accepted by others. After analyzing what this quote means, I agree with the main idea of it. I feel that when people aren’t hiding behind something, they

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360 Words | 2 Pages

African Americans were not treated fairly during slavery. African Americans are just like everyone else and deserve the same right as everyone else, no one should be treated differently by their skin color. Frederick Douglass and Paul Dunbar both talk about slaves and being treated unfair. They both use personal experience to support their ideas. Paul Laurence Dunbar uses conflict in “we wear the mask” to get his point across about African Americans being treated unfairly after slavery ended.

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165 Words | 1 Pages

Throughout your whole life you may notice several people wear masks. Not literal masks, but they do wear masks. They put up a fake persona to hide their true selves. While reading The Great Gatsby, I noticed F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces several characters such as Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan, who put up masks instead of dealing with their pain. James Gatz is one of the more obvious characters who puts on a mask in this novel.

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526 Words | 3 Pages

Certain causes can initiate the usage of the mask. Feeling vulnerable is a main cause for the characters to put walls up. They don’t want to show people that their armor is taken off, and that they are able to be attacked for whatever they say or do; most importantly, their views on the black community. For example, Dolphus Raymond. *quote* *backup info* Atticus decides to teach Scout to see things clearly while she is still young because it is crucial for children to learn how the world works while they are still impressionable.

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802 Words | 4 Pages

Such personification mirrors Dunbar’s use of figurative language, which relates the poems in more ways than one. Dunbar touches on human features such as cheeks and eyes in his poem but also uses a spiritual element to advance his point of view. Furthermore, “We Wear the Mask” was written in 1896; a period in American history that was post-slavery but still had widespread discrimination. The spiritual connotation within Dunbar’s poem can allude to African American churches and/or the hymns slaves sung on plantations. Nevertheless, the struggle of African Americans is a symbol of both presented

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

People act differently when they are with certain people than when they are alone. Some will call this act a “mask.” This metaphor is used because people cover up who they truly are or what they really feel with their actions; similar to the way a mask covers up a person’s face. This idea of a mask is explored in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask” and readers can see examples of “masks” in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. People often wear masks to hide something about themselves that they are not proud of or hide their emotions and fears they do not want others to know.

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794 Words | 4 Pages

In the book the Lord of the Flies the masks that Jack’s group uses helps them overcome their fear of killing the pig by hiding their true feelings. When Jack volunteers himself as the leader of hunting he doesn’t realize that he would have to overcome new challenges. Masculinity “masks” and the clay masks they wear in the Lord of the Flies are basically just “things trying to look like something else” (Golding 63). Jack explains to his group of hunters that the masks they were going to wear are so they can look like something they are not or to hide what is keeping them from killing a pig. This shows that they are trying to push away their true selves and by looking like something else they can make a character of who they choose to be based on the reason they put the “mask” on.

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694 Words | 3 Pages

He used this motif of wearing a mask a great deal in his novel, and it leads us to believe that, everyone wears a mask, even society. The idea shown in this poem is also shown through the narrator’s introduction into the novel. For example, in the prologue, Ellison wrote, “I am an invisible man…I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me” (3). This shows how the narrator represents the norms of society in that people are forced into wearing masks in order to even be seen in other people’s eyes. The narrator begins, in literal terms, as one of those people who haven’t realized that being themselves is just not enough.

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2083 Words | 9 Pages

The mask is the hard shell that young men are expected to face the world with. They are expected to show only their best selves and hide their insecurities and worries. The mask is incredibly relatable to the social construction of gender, because it was created through the social construction of gender. Young males would not need to create a mask and live behind it if society didn 't force them too.

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

The oldest found mask is from 7000 BC, and experts believe it was used for rituals and ceremonies. Masks have an important cultural context in history, and as the use of masks has progressed, humans have adopted masks into other forms of entertainment and festivities. In present times, with better understanding of human psychology, society has come to understand that people wear emotional “masks” as well. Masks have a somewhat important context in both Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask”. Both works describe masks as a way to hide one’s true self from everyone; Dunbar, however, depicts masks as an emotional barrier to cover up one’s true emotions or feelings, while Golding uses masks as a physical object to hide behind.

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914 Words | 4 Pages

Masks hide the truth and obscure the facts. They form a barrier between what is real and what is an illusion. Yet, during from the moment blacks were brought to this continent in chains, to the moment they were granted civil rights in the 1960’s, masks were a method of survival. Another way of life for African Americans was the practice of signifying. Signifying is mostly seen in the black literary tradition as a means for African Americans to take back power from the white through misinformation and deception.

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438 Words | 2 Pages

But by doing this, these people hide parts of themselves from others, making themselves seem one-dimensional. They hide behind these masks they form, and conceal themselves from the terrifying, outside world. Duality is then manifested from this side hidden from society, and for good or for bad, people learn these hidden aspects of themselves. Although others may not yet know of these hidden sides of subjects, one

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681 Words | 3 Pages

It is, obviously, a symbolic one, that is meant to hide the suffering of people. It hides everything, “our cheeks and […] our eyes”, and “the eyes [being] the mirror of the soul”, the mask hides the inner you. (Dunbar, l. 2) (Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra). But, in addition to the hiding, there’s also the lie about the emotion. Indeed, the mask isn’t only meant to hide the emotions, but also to create new ones on the surface, as we can see when the author said “We wear the mask that […] lies” (Dunbar, l. 1).

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398 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story “No Face” by Junot Diaz, the main protagonist, No Face, embodies the stereotypical view that we all have of superheroes--people with superpowers out of this world--and nurtures this trait through his own fantasy and uniqueness of his daily life. In the very beginning, No Face “pulls on his mask”, shielding his entire face from view, as he “grinds his fist into his palm.” It’s almost as if he wants to see the world through a different view, rather than an average one.

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