Dunbar's Pain In The Poem They Wear The Mask

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The poem “We Wear the Mask” is about oppressed African Americans. They are ones that are forced to wear masks of happiness to hide their pain, anger, and frustration. Their pain was caused by the discrimination they still faced. For example, “separate but equal” which allowed African Americans to be segregated at schools, restaurants, libraries, etc. Additionally, hate groups were lynching innocent African Americans just because of their skin color. Dunbar shows the pain of the people wearing the masks in the lines “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,”. “Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs?”, and “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries. To thee from tortured souls arise.”, even though they are smiling they are dealing …show more content…

The bird has some freedom but can’t leave the confines of the cage. In the lines “I know why the caged bird beats his wing. Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;” Dunbar is showing us the bird’s unhappiness at being caged. He is also showing the physical pain the bird causes itself in its struggle to be free. Dunbar references the bird’s struggle to be free again in the lines “And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars. And they pulse again with a keener sting— I know why he beats his wing!” Even though the bird knows beating its wings against the cage will cause pain he continues to do it in the hopes of being free someday. Dunbar also shows the emotional state of the bird in the lines “When he beats his bars and he would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee,” the bird is singing to be free. The bird tries to change his situation by repeatedly beating his wings on the cage. Dunbar shows the bird appealing to a higher power with the lines” It is not a carol of joy or glee, but a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core”, the bird is signing a prayer to be

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