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Poetry techniques used when we wear the mask
Poetry techniques used when we wear the mask
We wear the mask poem subject
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There are times in life when there seems to be no answers to the harassments of living in our society. “What should I do? What to think, and what to say?”are thoughts constantly pondering our minds due to our fears of being judged by the outside world. In the book of Philippians it is stated that “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” This quote means that God will make a way when there seems to be no way, so continue and trust in his words because he is here for you. Throughout “We Wear The Mask” the theme Paul Dunbar expresses is about African Americans going through life hiding their true emotions to the world, but there can be strong cases made as to who this poem is directed towards. …show more content…
Paul states that “We wear the mask that grins and lies.” By stating this, he’s referring to what himself and other African Americans had to go through in life. Dunbar says this in order to set the tone that African Americans must go through a life putting on a metaphoric smile to hide true feelings because of the fear of consequences from others. Dr. Russell Adams states until African Americans can find the ability to trust others outside their own race then they will continue to “wear the mask” as a self defense to the others in the world. The mask in this line does not actually resemble a true mask over the face. Instead, this mask symbolizes a disguise of African Americans true emotions inside. This line can be related to many cases from people wearing makeup to hide scars on their face, to people wearing certain types of clothing because they are insecure about their figure. These acts are similar to wearing a fake mask because in the end you're hiding the real person you are to the world behind this “mask”. Through the next lines of this stanza Dunbar states “This debt we pay to human guile.” When Paul says this, he is not talking about a debt we pay to a bill collector. He actually means that we are paying a price for not being true to ourselves. The poem intensifies when he states, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile.” When Mr. Dunbar states these words the reader gets a clear understanding of how difficult it was to go through life being someone they were not. We all know how it feels to be heart broken, Dunbar’s choice of words allows us to see that wearing this mask was life threatening. Through imagery you’re able to picture how the people affected are actually feeling underneath the false emotions. This line here relates to a well known song by Phil Collins “In The Air Tonight.”. Throughout the
In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Why We Can’t Wait, Martin Luther King, Jr. describes the harsh treatment of Negroes while they were fighting for their freedom. Negroes were not allowed to vote, sit at lunch counters with whites, use the same restrooms as whites, or even ride next to whites on buses. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the Birmingham movement in efforts to gain freedom for the Negroes. The Birmingham movement was successful because it gained freedom for blacks, desegregated many places, and it opened up many job opportunities for blacks that they never had before.
STUDY GUIDE ----- The Anthem Chapter 1 1.a. What is the difference between a and a? The society that is represented in the novel is futuristic in terms of the actual date, yet incredibly underdeveloped to what we experience today. The political structure obviously works, because there doesn't seem to be much discontent among the citizens.
Full of force and even satisfaction that by doing this, something great will be accomplished, McKay instills in all of his readers the sense that this is the only option that will grant them the dignity they have always desired. With this poem McKay gives to his readers a sense of pride and most of all a sense of hope. It was the hope that maybe someday they would be looked at and treated with the respect that they deserved. Although most agree that this poem was written for blacks and against whites, anyone who has ever felt the pain of victimization or humiliation could easily relate. It gives one the sense that pride is worth something still when all else is gone- that no matter how little one may have left or have had taken away, he or she can never be robbed of his or her pride.
“Why We Fight” is a 2005 documentary, directed by Eugene Jarecki, inquiring the dumbfounded intent of the United States’ recent intrusion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. It compiles archival footage and incorporates it with recent interviews, many conducted for the film, but, the film has not revealed anything that hasn’t been exposed to the mass consumption. There is also sufficient contemporary footage as well within this documentary: (1) congressmen making the case for military allocation; (2) the principal actors in the Bush administration quarreling for the obligation of intervening in Iraq; and (3) the 2003 incursion and subsequent occupation. This movie also portrays four Americans whose lives have been directly altered due to the Iraq War. None of
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).
In the poem pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch uses many poetic devices. She uses an analogy for the poem as a whole, and a few metaphors inside it, such as, “the rock has an open wound.” Ravikovitch also uses personification multiple times, for example: “Years pass over them as they wait.” and, “the seaweed whips around, the sea bursts forth and rolls back--” Ravikovitch also uses inclusive language such as when she says: “I’m telling you,” and “I told you.” She uses these phrases to make the reader feel apart of the poem, and to draw the reader in. She also uses repetition, for example, repetition of the word years.
Truly hiding the pain of how they felt. Using the word “we” is the colored people society. Not just one person like it is in society today where it’s an individual person and not just a general race. Acting up in way could cause tension to the blacks and whites. Where such as the KKK or a gang of white people harass and individual black or multiple. Using a kind of language or tone in general could easily be the reason why these problems are caused so instead of revealing their pain and agony, they wore a “mask” where they lie about how they really
...one existing trapped within the view of hegemonic society; angry, but powerless so long as he remains in this state. Yet Sanchez provides a succinct plan for Black Americans in their quest to ascend the Veil: to exist as both African and American while feeding white America a pacifying view of a half truth-destruction fueled by deadly ignorance. The speakers of the poems are merely victims of the same system, seeking the same freedom. While the works of these authors differ greatly, one characteristic is common in both works: The desire for power to ascend the Veil that hangs heavily upon them like a cloak that prevents their ascension. The desire to live beyond the Veil.
“We wear the mask that grins and lies”(Dunbar line 1). We Wear The Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a rondeau that varies between 10-15 lines in length and is organized into three stanzas. This poem means that we hide our true feelings underneath a veil of false expressions, we try to hide our real feelings to conform with society and be what society calls normal and we conform our personality to our parent’s dreams. The poem shows this meaning in the first stanza, the first line “We wear the mask that grins and lies,”(Dunbar line 1). This means that we hide our true feelings with a face of happiness instead of showing our true face.
In life, individuals are put through various difficult and stressful situations. To escape these situations, one might have resorted to using deceptive and deceitful behavior which ultimately led to betrayal. In the words of Paul Laurence Dunbar, author of the poem “We Wear the Mask,” “We wear the mask that grins and lies, / … This debt we pay to human guile;” (1:1-3:534). This means that one might hide their true emotions to disguise what they felt. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator throughout the story always hid what she was truly feeling from John, her husband, and sister-in-law Jennie. Since during that time period women were being oppressed, the narrator
Poetry is a way of expressing feelings and thoughts on paper. Paul Laurence Dunbar and his former wife, Alice Dunbar-Nelson both wrote poetry in order to express their thoughts and feelings toward different subjects. This essay presents a discussion of the comparisons and contrasts of the poems “I sit and sew” and “We wear the mask”. “We wear the mask” was written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and in many ways, it sheds some light of what it is like to experience the physical, mental and spiritual oppression of being black in a predominately white society. The poem “I sit and sew” by Alice Dunbar-Nelson discusses the torment and worthlessness felt by a woman in a predominately male society. One mutual similarity in the two poems is the discussion of suffering oppression. “We wear the mask” deals with racial oppression while “I sit and sew” deals with gender oppression. Each poem has its own way of dealing with the oppression.
Dunbar begins this poem by establishing the metaphor of the mask. The title is repeated in the first line so it must be significant. Masks cover the face, hiding emotion and personality. A mask is often used as a symbol for deception, exaggeration, and lies. In the same capacity, masks are worn at parties and on holidays for comedy and jeer. Masked disguises are used to make us look happy. The mask “grins and lies” , so we cannot always believe what we see, revealing that masks are meant to deceive and conceal. People of all different backgrounds face adversity and yet still manage to put on a ‘happy face’. Some do it because it makes it easier to face the day. Others may do it to elude people from looking too deeply into their lives. Even in pain, the mask must be worn. Over and over again, the mask is employed as a facade.
"We Wear the Mask" by Paul Dunbar was published in the late 1800’s, a time when African-Americans, like Paul Dunbar, were treated very poorly and had access to very few rights. Many changes were occurring during this time, and individuals were having a difficult time coming to terms with them. African Americans in particular found themselves caught in a culture that was not suitable for them. Dunbar expresses these feelings in the tone, which is shown by misery, anger and unhappiness. He uses the metaphor of wearing a mask to express the overall oppression of African Americans in this time period. Dunbar uses a lot of figurative language throughout this poem. He uses the word "we" to speak for the entire African American population as well as his self. He does this because he is painfully aware of the status his own race is living in. Throughout this poem, Paul Dunbar illustrates the horrific injustices they had to undergo while "wearing the mask" to hide their true emotions behind a smile. I have chosen a few lines in the poem “We Wear the Mask” to break down and show what each line really means through this figurative language Dunbar uses. I chose to examine lines 1 through 11, and 14 and 15.
Dunbar uses irony to express what the mask really is. As the poem opens, I for one was confused at what it was about. With no prior of Paul Laurence Dunbar, I had no idea what to expect. The opening lines of the poem read “We wear the mask that grins and lies,
Even though many critics have analyzed Hughes’s works both individually, by the volume and as a whole, not every individual piece has had the extent analysis by a professional critic. There are so many works that Hughes’s has created so it left a lot of options for those who want to analyze his poems themselves. The analysis of Ted Hughes’s poems reveals the deeper meaning and thought about the death of innocence and the idea that life is a game that can end in victory or defeat. Hughes creates these ideas with the use of animal imagery, extensive rigid and dark word choice and anthropomorphism in his poems “Crow’s fall," “Crow’s Nerve Fails” and “Crow Blacker Than Ever”.