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Paul Laurence Dunbar We Wear The Mask Analysis

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Paul Laurence Dunbar state, “ We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.” In life, the mask, covers the face and eyes that mouthed are deliberately indirect and misleading. The speaker of this poem steps out from behind the mask, however briefly a consummate mastery of all this false debt that separates him from authentic wholeness, Paul Laurence Dunbar is associated with The Age of Realism. This age lasted from about 1861 to about 1914. The writers during this time depicted social realities, life, and everyday activities of ordinary people. Realism Authors tried to portray what is real. Paul Laurence Dunbar achieved many of his goals and went through many trials to become the American poet he is today.
Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African American male to rise and accomplish something great. Paul went to highschool with the Wright brothers. He wrote and edited the The Dayton Tattler newspaper with the help of the Wrights. Dunbar applied for a job at the Dayton Business but, was rejected because of his race. African Americans were treated very poorly l in this time period because of slavery. Paul was the first African American poet to gain …show more content…

“We Wear The Mask”, by Joanne M. Braxton. Dunbar used humor a lot in his writing to mask the anger he had within it. Back then African Americans were treated very bad and know one had respect for the black race. They were always running and hiding.“ We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes”(Dunbar) This talks about the black race hiding from the dangers around them. With torn and bleeding hearts we smile. “In life the mask covers the face and eyes, and the torn and bleeding hearts. ‘In counting all our tears and signs? Nay, let them only see us while we wear the mask”(Dunbar). The black race wanted equality more than anyone could imagine. The rest of the world was completely unaware of their wants and desires to be successful and treated

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