Analysis Of We Wear The Mask By Paul Laurence Dunbar

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Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a poem explaining the lives and struggles of African American slaves in the United States, which helps give a detailed image of the struggles African Americans had to journey through during their lives as slaves. The poem itself uses short and uncomplicated words presumably so that African Americans who were Dunbar’s main audience could understand the poem and its meaning because many African Americans were just beginning to learn how to read a write. Dunbar wanted his newly freed African Americans to be able to comprehend and relate to the poem so that they could find a sense of closure, knowing that their story was being told to society. The strong sense of imagery helps depict the battle that …show more content…

They made the rest of the world believe that everything was fine and it was only slavery. People across the globe were not informed of the injustices being done along with the slavery of African Americans. That is why Dunbar including the second Stanza to show how well the world was not informed about the injustices occurring in the slave trade in the United States of America. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries / To thee from tortured souls arise. / We sing, but oh the clay is vile / Beneath our feet, and long the mile; / But let the world dream otherwise, / We wear the mask! The third stanza talks about how much the slaves cry and shout for God but their prays are never answered. The stated that no matter how much they try to fight the suffering they are always forced to put the mask back on. African Americans slaves tried many times to shout against the injustice occurring and also many pray but the perfect ending is that they continue to wear the mask no matter what they did. The Title “We Wear the Mask” is a perfect expression of how slaves felt during the slave era. They were forced to make themselves look satisfied and happy in order to hide the injustice from the outside world. African Americans did this for many years until slavery ended, but even though slavery has ended many still say that African Americans still wear a

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