ipl-logo

We Wear The Mask

600 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Critical analysis of slave narratives

In the literary readings, If We Must Die by Claude McKay and We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar, they share the similar concept of hiding the pain and fear from your oppressor. Dunbar said, “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries/ To Thee from tortured souls arise” (Dunbar p.243). Here he is speaking of how much of the pain and suffering him and others went through while they was born into the slave world. In McKay’s piece, you image a troop of drained combatants sitting on the ground. Their arms relax on their knees; their heads droop low. After a moment of miserable silence, pops out from the soldiers paces a man sweating and bloodied. The man stops and glances around. He nods at the men with compassion, because he's tired too. However, …show more content…

“We Wear the mask that grins and lies/It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes--/” (Dunbar p.243). The “we” in this case would be referring to black Americans of the time. Masks are used as cyphers for cloaks and dishonesty. Here the mask represent more than just a dress-up image. Dunbar is not talking about a real mask, but it’s rather a representative one that signifies the things individuals say and do that are not truthful. Dunbar also reminds us that masks are occasionally a vital part of self-protection, bearing in mind the threats that black Americans often challenged if they chose the more straightforward road. Shading their eyes is getting at a core of our humankind and the way we do or do not express our true feelings and emotions. Cheeks are often a sign of how we indicate our feelings and eyes are believed to be the windows to our soul. So if both of these are unseen, then we know we are not showing how we truly feel. “This debt we pay to human guile;/With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,” (Dunbar p. 243). Here, there’s a development of truth behind those masks and sense that there’s a lot of pain here. The hearts are not only torn but also bleeding which highlights the struggle and dichotomy that Dunbar is addressing. That "smile" also forms upon the original explanation of the mask smiling and lying. Human guile is a general human struggle. Telling dishonesties and being someone we are not is just a common part of everyday life. On one side there’s the disguise and on the other side is the

Show More
Related

All Quiet On The Western Front Dialectical Journal Answers

1891 Words | 8 Pages

This passage shows how the soldiers are emotionally and mentally drained by the horrors of war, and how they feel disconnected from the world they once knew. The

Read More

Summary Of In Defense Of Masks By Kenneth Gergen

267 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More

Lord Of The Flies Mask Quotes

483 Words | 2 Pages

Oscar Wilde once wrote: “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth,”. I think this quote is trying to say that when you give someone a mask, they will tell you anything more openly. This will happen because no one knows who is truly hiding behind the mask. Also, what you say will not be judged as harshly by the people you know since they don’t have any thoughts about you before hand since it is anonymous.

Read More

W. E. B. Dubois Analysis

944 Words | 4 Pages

In the analysis of the abundance of wonderful leaders who made a difference in the African American community since emancipation, W.E.B Du Bois made a special impact to advance the world. From founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to his influential book The Souls of Black Folk, he always found an accurate yet abstract way of verbalizing the strives of African Americans as well as making platforms for them to be known. Although he had less power than most of the bigger named African American leaders of his time, W.E.B Dubois’ overweighing strengths verses weaknesses, accurate and creative analogies, leadership style, and the successful foundations he stood for demonstrates his ability to be both realistic and accurate in his assessment since emancipation. Though Du Bois did have a beneficial impact

Read More

Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Paul Laurence Dunbar

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.

Read More

African American Culture In Langston Hughes And We Wear The Mask

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

Read More

Masks in 'We Wear the Mask' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

1218 Words | 5 Pages

“Grins and lies,” refers to how the mask functions, the mask smiles, showing happiness even when it is a fake and a lie. While describing how it feels to wear the mask, the speaker says, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile” (4). He says this to show that on the inside they are suffering greatly, but they disguise themselves as smiling to show that nothing is wrong. This shows how the author feels while wearing his “mask,” and demonstrates to the reader how the speaker feels it is necessary to put up

Read More

The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1213 Words | 5 Pages

This scene highlights the conflict between vulnerability and strength that underlies the soldiers'

Read More

Social Construction Of Gender In 'The Mask You Live In'

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.

Read More

Masking And Signification In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

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.

Read More

Use Of Masks In The Great Gatsby

696 Words | 3 Pages

He utilizes the mask when he says that “I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford…” (Fitzgerald ##). He wants everyone including Nick Carraway, the narrator, to know that he is a valuable and worthy person. However, it backfires when Nick Carraway says “I knew why

Read More

Double Consciousness In Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man

1924 Words | 8 Pages

DuBois wants to communicate the metaphor of the veil, which is worn by all African Americans because their view of the world and potential opportunities are so different than that of white people. Although DuBois uses both double consciousness and the veil as two separate concepts, their meanings deeply intertwine. He sees the veil as a gift of sorts to African Americans because it provides them with a second sight, which could potentially be a blessing and a curse. Double consciousness makes it hard for African Americans to establish their identity, which was made harder by the negative white American view of

Read More

Lord Of The Flies Quotes

556 Words | 3 Pages

The complex idea that is shown with my mask is loss of innocence. Loss of innocence is shown in Lord of the Flies especially when the boys kill Simon, the only truly innocent one on the island. His whole time on the island, he knew that the other boys were the beast, the savage ones. He always knew that their innocence was lost. Another way loss of innocence is shown in Lord of the Flies is that as the boys were being rescued, Ralph cried for the first time and he cried for “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”

Read More

Stephanie Ericsson The Ways We Lie Essay

1190 Words | 5 Pages

Stephanie Ericsson begins her explorative essay, “The Ways We Lie,” with a personal anecdote of all the lies she fabricated in one day. She told her bank that a deposit was in the mail when it was not, told a client that the traffic had been bad when she was late for other reasons, told her partner that her day was fine when it was really exhausting, and told her friend she was too busy for lunch when she just was not hungry, all in the course of a day. She shifts from talking about herself to talking about everyone, claiming that all people lie, exaggerate, minimize, keep secrets, and tell other lies. But, like herself, most still consider themselves honest people. She describes a week in which she tried to never tell a lie; it was debilitating, she claims.

Read More

Sympathy Paul Laurence Dunbar Analysis

1652 Words | 7 Pages

Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first African-American poets to receive widespread recognition from both the Caucasian and African-American communities released many pieces of literature expressing his feelings throughout his life during the Reconstruction era. Two of these pieces, “We Wear the Mask” and “Sympathy” were short poems that veered from his regular dialectic pieces, aimed at aiding in Reconstruction, and held hidden rebellions against the mistreatment of African-Americans at the time the passages were released. The African-American and Ethnic Literary Studies critical approach is a tool used while critiquing pieces of literature that hold common themes or elements tracing back to slavery and segregation in early America. This approach

Read More

More about We Wear The Mask

Related Topics

Open Document