We Wear The Mask By Paul Larence Dunbar

The poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Larence Dunbar stood out to me over the other poems because it has that same theme of miscommunication that is in all of the literature we have read. However, this form of miscommunication is intentional. In this poem, the narrator referred to as “we” wear a mask of smiles to hide their bleeding hearts and sadness from the world. It seems as if the narrator is hiding something in order for the world not to know for its own benefit. What really stuck out to me was lines nine and fifteen. Line nine is: “We wear the mask.” The title of the poem and line fifteen is “We wear the mask!” When I first read this it seemed like some kind of cult following. The general mystery of the poem, behind its perceived simplicity,

This poem as a whole is quite repetitive as in every stanza the narrator states that they wear a mask of happiness to protect the world from their suffering. This poem also relates heavily to Nella Larsen's novella Passing. In the novella, Irene wears a mask to hide her true feelings and thoughts about Clare’s appearance in her life. Both the poem and novella have the same theme of intentional miscommunication. In “We Wear the Mask” the narrator is purposely hiding their true emotions and suffering to protect humanity from the truth. In Passing, Irene is intentionally hiding what her feelings are about Clare’s sudden appearance in Irene's life and her relationship with Irene’s husband Brian. In both of these writings, the mask wearer replaces their sadness and suffering with a false expression, attempting to hide their true feelings. In “We Wear the Mask” an example of this is when the narrator states; “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,” (Dunbar 4). This is similar to Irene’s experience attempting to cover up her emotions as she learns that Clare was invited to her party; “When she was sure that she had done crying, she wiped away the warm remaining tears and got

The main difference between these is the person or people they wear the mask to protect. In “We Wear the Mask” the narrator claims to protect the world from their pain. In Passing, Irene wears the mask to protect herself. In Irene’s mind, if she doesn’t wear the mask and tells Clare and Brian what she feels, then Clare will stay in her life forever. But perhaps in both of these stories it would be better for everybody if they took the mask off. The narrator in “We Wear the Mask” claims to protect the world by wearing the mask, but maybe their suffering is for nothing and nothing would happen if they take the mask off. In Passing, if Irene takes the mask off, then Clare and Brian will be able to help Irene with her feelings and Clare can stop doing the things that she is doing to make Irene adamant at getting her out of her life. Simply looking at themes, both of these stories have the same theme of intentional miscommunication to shield people from a truth that would hurt