We Wear The Mask By Patrick Henry

Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks, or expressions that make a person or a group. The poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar and “Speech in the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry show different concepts of identity. “We Wear the Mask” gives the concept that people tend to hide their identity. Patrick Henry’s speech shows the illusion of hope and how people will stand up for what they believe. Both “We Wear the Mask” and “Speech in the Virginia Convention” showed how identity is the characteristics that define a person and how they are viewed by the world. The Poem “We wear the Mask” showed how people tend to hide their problems. Lines one through four states,

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our

Paul Lawrence Dunbar used a mask as an analogy to show how people hide their problems and negative emotions. Specifically, line four shows how the mask is used to cover up pain and suffering by using the words “torn and bleeding hearts”(Dunbar line 4). In these four lines, Dunbar conveyed the message that people try to cover up the negativity going on in their life and hide it under a mask. This concept of identity illustrated by Dunbar shows how people want to be defined by others. Lines eight and nine state, “Nay, let them only see us, while / We wear the mask” (Dunbar lines 8-9). People don’t want their problems or suffering to be seen by others. They only want to be seen when the mask is on. To put this into perspective, people only want to be seen by others for the good things in their life. Paul Laurence Dunbar showed how identity is defined by others through the poem “We Wear the Mask.” Through the analogy of the mask, Dunbar shows that people will hide the negatives in their life and how people will fake how they feel around others so that their identity is not defined by

On page five Henry states, “Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope” (Henry 5). Patrick Henry called hope and illusion. An illusion is “something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality” (Dictionary.com). Henry claimed that hope is fake and that it lures people. This means that the patriots hoped for freedom and that feeling of hope controlled them. In Henry’s words, “We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts” (Henry 5). The Patriots let this hope define them even though they weren’t going to be given freedom. At the end of the speech, Patrick Henry stated his infamous quote: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death” (Henry 7). Patrick Henry would rather die than live life without liberty. This statement defined Patrick Henry’s identity. Henry was willing to die for something he believed in. The concept of identity shown in Patrick Henry’s speech is that people are defined by what they believe