ipl-logo

We Wear The Mask Literary Devices

861 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Oppression poetry analysis by jimmy santiago baca

Literary Analysis We Wear the Mask

In the poem We Wear the Mask the author Paul Laurence Dunbar uses statements and lines to divulge and show the reader that the speaker has to “Wear A Mask” to cover their true self and that the speaker is having to lie and and put on a face and enclose their feelings because of their race. The speaker uses phrases such as “we wear a mask” to help contribute to the theme “Never oppress yourself because you feel cloistered”. The author uses outlying language and tone to express how the speaker feels in their environment. The Structure of this poem involves AABBC, CCDE, and AABBCE.
The author's language in the poem creates an omitted tone. This helps paint the picture of how the speaker feels and how reality …show more content…

The overall theme “Never oppress yourself when you feel cloistered”. The speaker is constantly stating multiple phrases to show how they feel. For example the author uses words like “Thee” or “guile” to convey much more tone and serious language within the text as well as words such as vile. There are many words that the author could utilize to convey their point, so why these words? Vile conveys so much tone and depth, a problem or unpleasant issue that the author may encounter. Guile may refer to sin as the poem utilizes many christian languages or phrases. When using guile the author may be referring to a punishment. When the author utilizes “thee” they may use this to connect to their audience. The theme of the text is to “Never oppress yourself because you feel cloistered” The author utilizes words such as “Vile” or “Guile” to convey the idea of oppression or even being oppressed. When the author uses words such as “with tortured souls” or “in counting all our tears and sighs” this conveys the idea of the author’s mistreatment or the conflict they may face behind the masks or whilst wearing

Show More
Related

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

Kenneth Patchen's Be Music, Night

1053 Words | 5 Pages

I have interpreted these lines in one way, yet there are a million different possibilities. The author puts the words onto the paper, but the reader’s job is to interpret their own emotion, memory or belief and actually apply it to the poet’s words in order to create an

Read More

Edward Hirsch's Execution Poem Analysis

566 Words | 3 Pages

The feeling of astonishment and awe are directed into the speaker’s impersonal tone. During the poem, the speaker leaves out emotional ties in

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

In Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask” the speaker wears a mask to hide his internal suffering because he does not want the rest of the world to think he is weak. This poem relates the prejudice black people face against white people. The speaker starts the poem with the lines, “We wear the mask that grins and lies,” (1). Here he describes the kind of “masks” that he wears.

Read More

In Defense Of Masks By Kenneth Gergen Summary

949 Words | 4 Pages

Cherry Zheng English Writing 4 Tim Ballard February 6, 2023 “Masks” Are Needed In his essay, “In Defense of Masks,” Kenneth Gergen argues that people cannot be one’s true self at all times due to the fact that we all carry multiple masks and multiple identities, and we change our masks depending on the social situations and pressures. Gergen believes that “masks” are quite common to today’s world and our personas are influenced based on the environment and others around us. More to add, Gergen also thinks that it is impossible to have “a coherent sense of identity”, and it is not a bad thing. On the other hand, it is quite healthy in a way that it helps to enhance human relationships.

Read More

The Crucible Of Champions By Langston Hughes

840 Words | 4 Pages

To begin, I chose the poem “We Wear Mask '' written by Paul Laurence Dunbar to represent how collaboration and community bring out the best in people. First The poem shows how the Black community tries to wear mask because they scared to show their identity. They were scared to show them there true self because they knew the white community wouldn’t respect them because of there color. Not only that they knew that the white community didn’t respect them for who they are

Read More

How Does Double Voice Affect Paul Laurence Dunbar's Writing

505 Words | 3 Pages

“When Malindy Sings” and “We Wear the Mask” are two popular poems written by Dunbar. Each touch on difficulties he and other African Americans face every day. However, “When Malindy Sings” is written in dialect, while “We Wear the Mask” is not. When looking at each poem, “We Wear the Mask” has to hide the true meaning of the poem beneath beautiful word play and descriptive word play. This important to note because only the African American community would understand the true underlying message of false contentment.

Read More

Archetype In We War The Mask By Paul Laurence Dunbar

316 Words | 2 Pages

“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar is an example of an archetype. In this poem Dunbar continuously presses the idea of wearing a mask; this is not a physical mask people carry on their faces but a metaphor for hiding one’s true self from the public. The first stanza second line there is the quote, “It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,” which really means the mask, as the it, is reforming ourselves into something we may be hiding and reshaping for an outsider's perspective on us. The connection between this idea that Dunbar is expressing and the archetype method is that they both convey an inner message that is within human nature. Everyone feels the need to be something they are not to be accepted.

Read More

To His Coy Mistress And Hamlet Analysis

802 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, the speaker continues on to say that when she dies, “then worms shall try/ that long preserved virginity/ and your quaint honour turn to dust/ and into ashes all my lust” (Marvell 27-30). The speaker is telling the mistress that if she will not do the things he wants her to do then she will die a virgin with the worms and other insects encompassing her body. This is the speakers selfish and lustful attempt to pursued and insult the mistress until she gives into him. The man allows his selfish desires to consume him and this drives him to talk to the woman in a demeaning manner in order to get what he wants. In addition to self-seeking love driving the speaker to become uncontrollable lustful in the poem, there is also contrasting feeling of selflessness and selfishness exemplified in

Read More

Paul Laurence Dunbar's 'We War The Mask'

199 Words | 1 Pages

Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" is set in the iambic tetrameter where it follows the pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables: "We wear the mask that grins and lies, [emphasis added]" (808). While following this meter, the poem utilizes the image of a mask as a metaphor for a facade. Dunbar uses a rhyme scheme in his poem; however, it is not consistent due to the final line of each stanza interrupting the rhythm: "Why should the world be over-wise, / In counting all our tears and sighs? / Nay, we let them only see us, while / We wear the mask."

Read More

Dunbar's 'We Wear The Mask'

473 Words | 2 Pages

In We Wear the Mask, the author’s rhetorical purpose is to teach the reader why people hide behind their emotions. Dunbar states in the poem that “We wear the mask”, but what mask? What are ‘we’ hiding from? Dunbar explains that we (everyone) are hiding our feelings about one another. He is trying to make the reader realize what people are hiding from everyone else.

Read More

We Wear The Mask Analysis

1594 Words | 7 Pages

It is doubtful that there are any human beings on Earth that have not donned a mask of some sort. Some masks come in the form of the very clothes we wear, while others may be as intangible as our self-presentation. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies details the story of how one group of British boys establishes a civilization on a desert island only to watch it fall apart due to infighting and savagery; it is essentially a study of masks and how they influence human behavior and identity, ultimately resulting in a cautionary tale about letting emotions fester. Other works, such as Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” and Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory,” provide insights as to what masks are worn by humans every day; while Dunbar’s perspective as a post-emancipation African-American reflects the need for dignity in the midst of post-war persecution and prejudice, Robinson’s perspective as a middle-class American distorts the American Dream through the suicide of its title character. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the portrayal of masks’ functions aligns with their presentation in Dunbar’s poem “We Wear the Mask” and Robinson’s poem

Read More

Compare And Contrast I Shall Paint My Nails Red

668 Words | 3 Pages

On the other hand, the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar is written in closed form, and it includes both rhyme and meter. Dunbar also chose to use literary devices. The phrase “we wear the mask” is repeated throughout the poem to create emphasis and get the point across. Both writers create a sound in their poems either in closed form by writing in rhyme and meter or by simply repeating a word in an open form

Read More

We Wear The Mask Rhetorical Devices

706 Words | 3 Pages

In his poem “We Wear the Mask,” Paul Laurence Dunbar describes societal pressures, uses extended metaphors, and conveys the speakers troubles through various rhetorical devices like rhyme structure, enjambment and censura in order to showcase that although people may put on a happy face, a majority of them are struggling under a mask of lies and deceit, ultimately illustrating that although people may look content, it’s a façade created in order to please society. To begin, the title “We Wear the Mask” is really an extended metaphor as well as a central theme in the poem. The speaker, Dunbar, explains what the mask is in the first stanza. He explains that it’s a tool meant for fooling others, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides

Read More

More about We Wear The Mask Literary Devices

Related Topics

Open Document