We Wear The Mask: Our Different Masks

“We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes […]” (Dunbar 249). In the poem “c,” csuggest that many people wear masks that conceal their true identities and emotions. Dunbar believe that hiding one’s true feelings and identity behind masks can become torturous. Many people have different masks that they wear throughout their everyday lives. There are many possible reasons why people wear masks. There are those who wear masks to hide things are seen as socially unacceptable. Some wear masks to protect the people around them. Others wear masks in order fit in or to meet other’s expectations of them. Dunbar’s suggestion that people do, indeed, wear masks, can be corroborated by examining three famous public figures and the discrepancies between the masks they wear in public and the lives they led in private.

The first, and probably one of the most well-known public figure that wore a mask is Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton wore a mask that seem to correspond with monogamy, but when the mask was removed, the public saw otherwise. This was revealed in an address to the nation in which Clinton confessed that “Indeed I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible” (www.cnn.com). Clinton’s mask was removed when the public saw that Clinton was not the monogamous person that some had believed. Many people thought he was person who was trustworthy enough to become the President of the United States. However, this was proven to be another mask when Clinton said “I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a...

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...mask that I wear is one that hides the way I really feel. I sometimes put on this mask if I am sad or worried to protect my friends and family from becoming worried or sad also. Another mask is the one I put on when I have to pretend that I like someone or something because you would be considered rude if you were to tell them how you really feel. A final reason I sometimes wear a mask is to become someone I’m not, due to pressure to fit in or to live up to expectations of others. People wear masks because the society we live in condition us to live in a manner that is understood to socially acceptable. The society we live in sees anything that is different as strange or wrong, even though everyone is different in one way or another. Therefore, until the population bring to an end intolerance and become more open-minded, “We wear the mask!” (Dunbar 249). (1307).