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We Wear The Mask Rhetorical Devices

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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 …show more content…

One device he uses is enjambment to add to the stressed and tourtured tone of the poem. In the last stanza, Dunbar writes, “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries / To thee from tortured souls arise” (Dunbar 10-11). This is the first time the speaker outright admits to the suffering beneath the mask. The enjambment between these lines makes the reader speed up while reading as well as gives a sense of power and exclamation to his words. These lines are where the theme of the poem culminates and reveals the writer's purpose for writing the piece. Which is to bring to light the suffering that groups of people experience on a daily basis. Another device used that contributes to the overall attitude of the poem is the rhyme scheme and the rhyming structure of the stanzas. The first stanza of the poem follows AABBA. The last stanza also follows this rhyme scheme besides the sixth and final line, “We wear the mask!” The middle stanza is the shortest stanza and has a rhyme scheme of AABC. By breaking this scheme in the middle of the poem, Dunbar makes the reader slow down to draw attention to the last two lines in stanza three, “Nay, let them only see us, while / We wear the mask” (Dunbar 8-9). This line also utilizes enjambment, which makes the reader slow down while reading this line instead of speed up like in other cases of

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