1. Why does Claude McKay encourage his people to fight back to an unfair match? He believes that if people don’t fight back, then the enemies will continue to do their horrific actions. When you fight back not only for yourself but for the next people then you will truly die in honor. “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, / Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! (McKay 13-14)” The narrator uses the wall as a metaphor to represent what African Americans are trapped with nowhere to go because of the troubles that block them from getting away from the killing enemies. 2. What does it meant to have a soul as deep as the rivers? It represents the experience and struggles throughout the years. “My soul has grown deep like the rivers (Hughes 4).” For many years, rivers have been an important source of civilization just as slaves have played a vital role for the Caucasian race. The narrator uses the rivers to symbolize the African American race. 3. …show more content…
Why does the narrator only remember one event in Baltimore? The poem first started as a regular day in Baltimore for this young black boy. However, he discovers another young boy about his age looking at him for some reason. “And he was no whit bigger, /And so I smiled, but he poked out /His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.” (Cullen 6-8).” He was aware of racism but was startled to receive racism from some so young and looked just like him. 4. Why does the narrator mean when stating that we all wear mask? Paul Laurence Dunbar does the opposite approach for his poem than Countee Cullen does. Dunbar goes straight to the point that everyone wears a mask to cover the lies. “We wear the mask that grins and lies, /It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,(Dunbar 1-2)” He uses the word “we’ not “I” because wearing a mask is a universal
The persona in the poem reacts to the power the wall has and realizes that he must face his past and everything related to it, especially Vietnam.
The poem, "We Wear the Mask”, by Paul Laurence Dunbar is about separating Blacks people from the masks they wear. When Blacks wear their masks they are not simply hiding from their oppressor they are also hiding from themselves. This type of deceit cannot be repaid with material things. This debt can only be repaid through repentance and self-realization. The second stanza of “We Wear the Mask” tells Blacks whites should not know about their troubles. It would only give them leverage over Blacks. Black peoples’ pain and insecurities ought to be kept amongst themselves. There is no need for anyone outside the black race to know what lies beneath their masks. The third stanza turns to a divine being. Blacks look to god because he made them and is the only one that can understand them. They must wear their mask proudly. The world should stay in the dark about who they are. This poem is about Blacks knowing their place and staying in it. This is the only way they could be safe.
In two lines in the poem McKay states, “If we must die, let it not be like hogs” “If we must die, O let us nobly die”. McKay is trying to emphasize to African Americans to not let these white men who think they are above everyone else kill them mentally and physically. He is also trying to emphasize to not let the white men kill them in their foolish ways, and to take a stand in the fight for equality so they will die nobly. Wagner discusses again how McKay’s poem can rally African Americans together, “[With the publication of “If We Must Die” McKay became] the incarnation of the new spirit and the spokesman for a whole people at last resolved to witness no longer, in registration and submissiveness, the massacre of its own brothers at the hands of the enraged white mob, but to return blow for blow and, if necessary, to die” (Wagner). The poem paints a picture of a battle scene where a captain or a general is trying to rally his troops up.
In the story "Battle Royal" the narrator's grandfather tells the family to undermind the whites with "yeses" and "grins", he also instructs them to "agree'em to death and destruction". The grandfather felt that in order to keep the family safe and also hold on to the oppression that scars them everyday, they should put on a mask. This will keep the white man pleased and the blacks could keep there self respect because as soon as the opportunity for social equality comes they'll go for it. This didn't seem like a bad idea but it was hard for the narrator to comprehend.
In the poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, written by Langston Hughes, and the poem, For My Children, written by Colleen McElroy both mention the rivers that their people have lived next to in Africa and in America. Langston Hughes mentions the rivers in Africa as a reminder of where his people used to live, and how their past still lives with in the deep waters of the African rivers. Yet, he mentions the rivers he lived by in America, and how those rivers are also where his people’s past lives. His idea in the poem was to address how all of...
The title itself directs readers towards a sense of assimilation by wearing a mask. Wearing a mask indicates hiding an original identity in order to please the mainstream one. This is exactly the case in “We Wear the Mask”. In this case, blacks had to hide their humiliation and suffering from their white counterparts by wearing a mask that lies. When Dunbar wrote, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile” (646), it is evident that African Americans were forced to hide their pain by showing a fake smile. They suffered emotionally on the inside but could not express it. In addition to showing a fake smile, African Americans did not care about their heritage. The third stanza reads, “But let the world dream otherwise, / We wear the mask!” (14-15). The lines do not celebrate cultural heritage because the slaves had to show pleasure while they are being tortured. Letting the world dream otherwise shows the slaves’ carelessness when it comes to expressing their identity.They are concealing their true self by hiding their pain. Hiding their pain also means hiding their cultural
Lastly, Langston Hughes’s poem, “The Negro Speaks Of Rivers”, ends with “I’ve known rivers: / Ancient, dusky rivers. / My soul has grown deep like the rivers (8-10). The speaker voices out his last breath to which from an analytical standpoint, the theme of death arises. Langston Hughes follows T.S. Eliot’s suggestion as he cries out for the African-American race to alienate themselves by embracing their own artistic form, claiming that black is beautiful.
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a lyric poem in which the point of attraction, the mask, represents the oppression and sadness held by African Americans in the late 19th century, around the time of slavery. As the poem progresses, Dunbar reveals the façade of the mask, portrayed in the third stanza where the speaker states, “But let the dream be otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role in the lives of African Americans, who pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This occasion, according to Dunbar, is the “debt we pay to human guile," meaning that their sadness is related to them deceiving others. Unlike his other poems, with its prevalent use of black dialect, Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” acts as “an apologia (or justification) for the minstrel quality of some of his dialect poems” (Desmet, Hart, and Miller 466).
“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson are two poems that depict how many people hide their feelings from others. The two poems are similar in theme, but are told from different points of view and differ in plot.
Paul Laurence Dunbar was the famous poet that created the poem, “we wear the mask.” In this poem, Dunbar showed the real reason why African Americans wore these “masks” during these hard times. He showed that even though African Americans during the hard time of slavery were looked down upon, that they could stand up and shield their pain everyday. In the poem, “we wear the mask,” Paul Laurence Dunbar uses point of view, imagery, and repetition in order to create the theme of wearing masks to hide who we really are, which reflects the time period of segregation and slavery. On June 27, 1872 Paul Laurence Dunbar was born.
We all hide ourselves from other people, we intend to always smile in a polite way to show we are fine. We all have a mask that will never revealed to the public because of judgment or afraidness, "We wear the Mask." In the poem, "We wear the Mask" the author Paul Lawrence Dunbar works to convey this poem into a piece of art showing us why people hide their truth? In the beginning the poem we see a happy face, but later on come the "oh" or "O" to reveal the secret of the mask and head the sentence towards a different meaning. People hide their truthful mask to make others believe that everything is fine.
Hughes emphasizes his message consistently throughout this poem, weaving in the most important line in the middle and end of the poem. He is representing his people. African Americans have waited and been abused by society, and this deepened and weathered their souls over time, just as a river would become deepened and weathered. Hughes’ soul, the collective soul of African Americans, has become “deep like the rivers” (5). This simile speaks that the rivers are part of the body, and contribute to this immortality that Hughes is so desperate to achieve for his people. Rivers are the earthly symbols of eternity: deep, constant, mystifying.
The poem itself is a technique Robert Frost uses to convey his ideas. Behind the literal representation of building walls, there is a deeper metaphoric meaning, which reflects people's attitudes towards others. It reflects the social barriers people build, to provide a sense of personal security and comfort, in the belief that barriers are a source of protection which will make people less vulnerable to their fears. Robert Frost's ideas are communicated strongly through the perspective of the narrator in the poem, the 'I' voice, who questions the need for barriers. The use of conversation and the thoughts of the narrator reflect the poet's own thoughts. In line thirty to line thirty-five, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall. He has an open disposition and does not understand the need to 'wall in' or 'wall out' anything or anyone.
In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, the river stands as a symbol of endlessness, geographical awareness, and the epitome of the human soul. Hughes uses the literary elements of repetition and simile to paint the river as a symbol of timelessness. This is evident in the first two lines of the poem. Hughes introduces this timeless symbol, stating, “I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins” (Hughes 1-2). These opening lines of the poem identifies that the rivers Hughes is speaking about are older than the existence of human life. This indicates the rivers’ qualities of knowledge, permanence, and the ability to endure all. Humans associate “age” with these traits and the longevity of a river makes it a force to be reckoned with. The use of a simile in the line of the poem is to prompt the audience that this is truly a contrast between that ancient wisdom, strength, and determination of the river and the same qualities that characterize a human being. The imagery portrayed in the poem of blood flowing through human veins like a river flows ...
Nevertheless, this did not stop Hughes from putting out his work and being a voice for his people. “My soul has grown deep like the river” (Hughes. L. 1921). What led Hughes to write this line that shares the intensity of the things he has seen and done? Hughes wanted to connect with his people. He told them you are not alone in the struggle, I struggle with you.