We Wear the Mask

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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). Through the utilization of iambic tetrameter, end rhyme, sound devices, and figurative language, the speaker expresses the hidden pain and suffering African Americans possessed, as they were “tortured souls” behind their masks (10). The poem's meter, iambic tetrameter, represents the speaker's heartfelt attitude towards the sorrow that blacks kept away from whites, and in some cases, themselves. In the first stanza, the speaker declares that "[w]ith torn and bleeding hearts we smile, / And mouth with myriad subtleties" (lines 4-5). During the time when Dunbar published "We Wear the Mask," blacks faced constant discrimination and were treated without dignity. They felt helpless and unable to stop the series of unfortunate events that were happening to them, such as beatings, lynchings, and a lack of access to education and employment opportunities.... ... middle of paper ... ...To prevent any altercation, African Americans had to wear a mask that allowed them to smile "with torn and bleeding hearts" and "mouth. myriad subtleties" (4-5). Today, everyone is entitled to equal opportunities in the US. However, back in Dunbar's time, slavery prohibited black people from being ordinary members of society. Although they prayed heavily and persevered, they wore the mask for the time being, in the hopes of living in a world where the color of one's skin would not determine their character. No changes needed as this is a Works Cited section and should not be edited.

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