The poem “We Wear the Mask” sheds light upon what it was like to be an African American raised in a white-dominated society. In particular, the poem essentially expresses the classification of African Americans in post-slavery America. Dunbar’s concept of “The Mask” correlates to the black women in Atlanta due to the fact that the women endured vigorous amounts of pain and brutality. Not only were they shamed for their skin tone, but for their gender as well. It became a daily hassle for women to go about their lives due to the fact that they were not only a woman, but a black woman living in a predominantly white society. Dunbar begins the poem by declaring that the masks show an indication of one hiding their true feelings. Alternatively, …show more content…
They based their cooking off of their own interpretations and previous experiences amongst their imagination. By doing so, they became a “prime, social place”, especially for the children of the employing household in search of company and treats” (pg. 56). Not only were they creative, but they were also responsible for planning the meals, getting the groceries, washing dishes, cleaning the kitchen, and preserving the utensils. Unlike caretakers, the cooks work hours were more flexible. They were allowed to leave between meals, or if finished with their chores, allowed to leave after supper. For the women, it did not seem as though they wore masks. Hunter depicts the cooks as women who enjoy their job and the creativity and flexibility it offered. Unfortunately, laundry work was the most arduous work. “Laundry work became more dreadful as a result of industrialization” (pg. 56) When manufacturing became more prevalent, the amount of clothing people acquired increased, and the excess of fabric increased the constant need for washing. Laundry work became the most demanding work simply because it involved women making their own soap, preparing wash tubs from “beer barrels cut in half” (pg. 57), carrying enormous gallons of water, and also carrying massive amounts of soiled and dirty clothes. Like the cooks, laundry workers were also flexible with their jobs. However, some women are forced to wear masks. The work was exceptionally laborious and requires so much physical labor that it can cause stress to many women both mentally and physically. During this time period, women were not allowed to speak about their true feelings on a particular situation, no matter how unfortunate it may be. They wore masks to hide the exhaustion and tiring labor they
The work, the Souls of Black Folk explains the problem of color-line in the twentieth century. Examining the time following the civil war the author, W.E.B. Dubois, explains the African American experience of living behind the “veil”. To fully explain the experience of living behind the veil, he provides the reader with situations that a black race experiences in reconstruction. This allowed the readers to metaphorically step into the veil with him. He accomplishes this with the use of “songs of sorrow” with were at the beginning of each chapter, and with the use of anecdotes.
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
The poem, "We Wear the Mask”, by Paul Laurence Dunbar is about separating Blacks people from the masks they wear. When Blacks wear their masks they are not simply hiding from their oppressor they are also hiding from themselves. This type of deceit cannot be repaid with material things. This debt can only be repaid through repentance and self-realization. The second stanza of “We Wear the Mask” tells Blacks whites should not know about their troubles. It would only give them leverage over Blacks. Black peoples’ pain and insecurities ought to be kept amongst themselves. There is no need for anyone outside the black race to know what lies beneath their masks. The third stanza turns to a divine being. Blacks look to god because he made them and is the only one that can understand them. They must wear their mask proudly. The world should stay in the dark about who they are. This poem is about Blacks knowing their place and staying in it. This is the only way they could be safe.
They basically wore this mask to hide who they really was. The white society saw African American as basically an outsider and as people that were way below them. So many of these people got so a custom to society seeing them in that way that they sort of developed a “double consciousness”. What this mean is that to the world they act a certain way because it the “right” then to do, but at home or places where they can’t be judge they be who they really are. Du Bois states that we should fight back this “Double Consciousness” and just be who we were born to be. Good things come out when we act like the person that we are. We see this a lot during Celia Cruz career. Field Castro was trying to emerge her in this “double consciousness” idea but telling her who she had to be and what to say to the outside world. He wanted to control her very little step but she didn’t give in. The day that she left to Mexico and decided to never return to the island was the first day that she decided to fight back this “double consciousness” idea and just be herself. She didn’t want to do things she wasn’t comfortable, let alone be force to be someone she wasn’t. The day she sang “In Case of No Return” was the day she took of her mask and let the world see her true
Reading these poems is an incredible learning experience because it allows readers to view segregation through the eyes of someone most affected by it. In the U.S. History course I took I didn’t take away the details and specific examples I did from reading and researching Brooks’ work. For example, the history textbook only mentioned one specific person who was affected by segregation, that person was Rosa Parks. The example of Rosa Parks demonstrated just one isolated incident of how black people were punished if they disobeyed the laws of segregation. In contrast, Brooks’ work demonstrates the everyday lives of black people living with segregation, which provides a much different perspective than what people are used to. An example, of this would be in Brooks’ poem “Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat”. The speaker of this poem hired a black maid and referred to her as “it”(103). By not using the maid’s name or using the pronoun her, the speaker is dehumanizing the maid. This poem expresses to readers that white people thought that black people weren’t like them, that they weren’t even
While exploring an unknown island and struggling to survive, a group of schoolboys reveal their primitive, barbarous identities in William Golding’s work, Lord of the Flies. Similarly, Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African American poet, describes the hidden nature of individuals in order to protect themselves and conceal their pain. Golding’s novel and Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask,” both express masks as means of escaping reality and a source of strength; however, the pressures of society suppress the characters in Dunbar’s poem while the boys in Lord of the Flies unleash true feelings through their innate savageness.
One distinction between Du Bois’ writing and Dunbar’s poetry is that the latter can be applied to all subjugated peoples whereas the former applies explicitly to African-Americans (of course, that does not make its message exclusive). Dunbar’s caged bird is a symbol not just of black strife; it is a symbol of all whose nature is suppressed, a motif as trite and true as any. Nevertheless, to draw together the works of Du Bois and Dunbar is to more comprehensively understand the literature and rhetoric of black
During the struggle to rise to a higher social class, many African Americans have chosen to embrace white ideals while rejecting their heritage and anything that associates one with their “blackness” This type of rejection to one’s culture has been shown many times in African American literature. In “The Wife of His Youth,” by Charles Chesnutt, and Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the authors use their writing to show this disconnection; both Chesnutt and Ellison are able to capture the struggle and help their characters to overcome it by embracing their pasts, which can be a very difficult ideal in African American heritage.
African-Americans’/ Affrilachians’ Suffering Mirrored: How do Nikky Finney’s “Red Velvet” and “Left” Capture events from the Past in order to Reshape the Present? Abstract Nikky Finney (1957- ) has always been involved in the struggle of southern black people interweaving the personal and the public in her depiction of social issues such as family, birth, death, sex, violence and relationships. Her poems cover a wide range of examples: a terrified woman on a roof, Rosa Parks, a Civil Rights symbol, and Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, to name just a few. The dialogue is basic to this volume, where historical allusions to prominent figures touch upon important sociopolitical issues. I argue that “Red Velvet” and “Left”, from Head off & Split, crystallize African-Americans’ /African-Americans’ suffering and struggle against slavery, by capturing events and recalling historical figures from the past.
The people in this country have been embedded with the idea to have power and ability to govern themselves to a life that is exceptional. This fire burns within the minds of governments, companies, average men and in this case what is considered the lowest class: African Americans. In a country where there is constant struggle for racial equality, whether in an urban or back-woods country setting, race dictates power for characters like Emmett Till in “The Ballad of Emmet Till”, by Bob Dylan, Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, and Mama in A Raisin In The Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. All these characters vary in how they are persecuted yet are bonded by their struggle. Depicting the idea that there is a constant battle to control their own lives.
In the early 1900’s, around the time the story takes place; women were expected to be care takers of the home, to be clean, well dressed and mannered. All of these
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 otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role over the life of African Americans, whom pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This ocassion, 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).
In the time of the Great Depression, many people were in moments of suffering and hardships. However, African American were facing moments of prejudice and segregation, that was sonly based on the color of their skin. In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper lee and the poem “We wear the mask” by Paul Lawrence Dumber, gave incite to those moments and how African Americans changed themselves to fit in to the white people society.
...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” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson are two poems that depict how many people hide their feelings from others. The two poems are similar in theme, but are told from different points of view and differ in plot.