An Analysis Of Paul Laurence Dunbar's They Wear The Mask

“Shapeshifting requires the ability to transcend your attachments, in particular your ego attachments to identity and who you are. If you can get over your attachment to labeling yourself and you're cherishing of your identity, you can be virtually anybody. You can slip in and out of different shells, even different animal forms or deity forms.” - Zeena Schreck, religious leader of the Sethian Liberation Movement. In the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar the reader will learn that individuals feel the need to wear a mask to change their personality in order to become someone which surpasses their confidence, fear, insecurities, and emotions. This poem develops the realities about self-image and how it makes individuals act in

The image portrays the insecurities individuals have from the view of an adolescent by becoming involved with the new phenomenon of social media and creating his own identity that will be accepted by everyone. When a child has matured and gets involved with the true reality of the world like social media, they get exposed to external pressures that can end up with them feeling lonely, alienated or feel as if “nobody loves them”. This is also illustrated in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The antagonist, Jack is struggling with his identity as a hunter and as a follower of Ralph, but in chapter four he makes his decision clear. “He capered towards Bill and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.” (Golding, 66). While Jack still recognizes his life in the past, the mask is able to hide his true identity, and helps him acknowledge the evil and savagery, deep within him. Jack is in a new environment that is well suited for the acts of savagery, the civilized personality has become hidden. Once Jack paints his face, he feels the freedom to let out the beast within him. The mask takes away the humanity, not only in Jack, but in the rest of the hunters. The society of civilization that Ralph is trying to establish is what is keeping Jack and the hunters-animal like passions at bay. Under the rules of society in which

I think of all the students my age who were advertised as brilliant, the ones who were receiving outstanding grades at the age of nine. Whereas I was struggling to make sense of literature, mathematics, and education as a whole. I’m afraid that my accomplishments are pale in contrast to theirs. My perception of my fear and agony have left me trying to stay afloat in an ocean of my own tears. Before my feet that keep me suspended above the water stop moving forward, and I drown. Maybe thats my greatest fear: having all my efforts crippled in an instant because I was unprepared. I’ve only had individuals complain, and even pity me for who I did not become over the last sixteen years, and ignoring what I have achieved because it was not in their ideal qualifications. With no one to lean on and no one to point out my path, to give me the map. I wander aimlessly, but driven nonetheless, carrying the burden’s of feeling