Emotional Avoidance Mask Essay

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The purpose of a mask is to hide everything that is wrong by not showing it in the slightest. Not even that makes anything better for the mask user and will NOT solve anything for them. A short-term solution will not solve a long-term problem and can make the situation worse. Characters like Avis in the novel “We Are Called To Rise” use a variety of masks to hide the variety of problems in their lives. In the novel, Laura McBride uses Avis and their use of an emotional avoidance mask to demonstrate that she purposely hides how she really feels by showing no strength or emotion.
Specifically, Avis uses an emotional avoidance mask because she fails to address the issues that affect her the most by unhealthily covering them up. Avis deals with …show more content…

Bashkim, a young boy, is shown to wear a societal mask. This shows that anybody, even kids can wear masks of any kind. This is shown after Bashkim’s parents argued with his school principal and made Bashkim “afraid that (he) will never be allowed to come to school again…(Bashkim) just made the thought go out of (his) head. (Bashkim) pretended (he) was in a movie and (he) walked… with his movie face on” (McBride 44). Bashkim hides his reality; he does not want to face the issues of his mother and father fighting and being escorted out of the school so he pretends that he is in a “movie” which shows a perfect life. McBride clearly shows that societal masks can be harmful since they cover up the true feelings of someone and will only make it harder to make it better for them or help them. It is important for a character to express their true emotions in order to be helped so their situation won’t get worse. While McBride uses Bashkim as a prime example, she uses Avis again to explain the importance of how masks affect how Avis is as a person. Avis refers to flashbacks throughout the novel about her life and tells the story up to her current life in the book. One memory is when she had moved into a new neighborhood with new faces and people. Avis however blended into the newer society and became like everyone, when her “old life seemed to slip completely off (her) when a group of women assumed (Avis) was one of them...nobody seemed to notice that (her) memories were not the same as theirs.” (McBride 32). “Second life” shows that Avis is trying to blend into a life that is different from her life before. She is having to blend in with the moms around her even though her background life is different. McBride is showing that an assimilation mask is causing her to not be who she really is, in order to be accepted by society. If this were

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