When analyzing poetry, it’s important not to do it the same exact way every time. If you don’t change up the way you think about literary art forms every now and then, you might become susceptible to being closed minded and develop a sort of tunnel vision in your way of thinking. This doesn’t just go for literature, it goes for everything else in life as well. I’m going to be analyzing the poem We Wear the Mask That Grins and Lies by Paul Laurence Dunbar in a bit of a different way. I’m not just going to be talking about the poem as a whole, I’m going to be talking about it line by line. I believe it’s more effective to analyze shorter poems in this style. “We wear the mask that grins and lies” (Dunbar 791). This is a common way to start a poem. The poet is just repeating the title. Right from the start, the speaker is also letting us know what the poem is going to be about. You can imply that it’s going to be about how a lot of people wear a metaphorical happy mask to hide their true feelings from others. “It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” (791). Our …show more content…
The word guile basically means cunningly deceitful. Taking that into consideration, the speaker is saying that people are really cunningly deceitful with their emotions. The speaker is also saying there is a price to pay in order to hide emotions as well as some people do. What that price might be isn’t exactly clear. Whatever that price is, it is bound to be pretty hefty. Not only is it hefty, but we’re better with it than without it. “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile” (791). I believe that the speaker is saying that even though we hurt inside, we put on happy faces in order to hide our suffering from others. I believe the reason people do this is because it isn’t always easy to express how we feel. Especially when not dealing with painful things makes life a whole lot easier, but would it really be living if we didn’t talk about the way life makes us
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.
“In Defense of Mask,” by Kenneth Gergen he states that it is not possible for humans to find a coherent self identity without having a solution. The idea of developing a “coherent sense of identity” makes us act a certain way to please the wish of others. Gergen wants to find intentions of an individual 's choice of mask and how outward appearances and inward feelings we all come across. The author proves his statement by experimenting on people who had a positive and negative reaction from an interviewer.Therefore, the “coherent identity” versus “multiple identities” is detrimental to many individuals when they are trying to perceive into someone that they wish to become. I agree with Gergen, because having a mask hides
Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in a northern town near Dayton, Ohio on June 27, 1872 (Brawley 12). His parents instilled in him the value of an education, and he excelled at the all-white Dayton Central High-school where he held the titles of class president, the president of the school literary society, and the editor of the school's newspaper (15). Dunbar was extremely well learned; he spoke and wrote in Standard English, but just as often his poetry was written in black dialect. As one of the first professional African American literary figures (Baym 1038), Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetry consists of two distinct styles: his dialect pieces with the simple rhyme schemes of the ballad lyrical form, such as his 1897 poem When Malindy Sings, and his classical poetry that has more complex rhyme and form, and is written in Standard English like his 1897 poem, We Wear the Mask. The dialect poem, When Malindy Sings, is a result of what Dunbar called the mask, and what W.E.B. Dubois would later call double-consciousness. It portrays black society through the eyes of white America and how they wish to see it, while the poem written in classical form, We Wear the Mask, displays Dunbar’s true thoughts concerning his identity and the identity of his race.
“Poems differ as much as the people who write and read them, or as much as music and movies do” (Mays 846). Poems are the most difficult form of writing to analyze because they can be interpreted differently. Poems are composed of figurative language. Many times poems can be overanalyzed or not analyzed enough which could lead one to obtain an idea out of the poem that the writer never intended to provide.
For fear of judgment based on appearance, any human being might cover up his sorrows as to not display any signs of weakness. Throughout Dunbar’s poem, the characters reflect upon their perception of the world and ironically accept the world the way it is. Revealing the true nature of the world, Dunbar states, “Why should the world be over-wise, /In counting all our tears and sighs?” (Dunbar 6). The poet insists that everyone need to be more comfortable and open to new ideas while embracing each others uniquenesses defined by strengths and weaknesses. The world was never “over-wise” because people dismiss the idea of helping others in fear of ruining their own reputation. Because of the utter nature of society, citizens have no other option but to wear a mask of apathy and cover up their insecurities. The narrator feels the need to conceal their feelings by “wear[ing] the mask that grins and lies” (Dunbar 1). They use “lies” to cover themselves, but at the same time question why no one seems to care. This contradiction complicates the battle between the world and the individual. Nevertheless, by changing their identities, they spread the idea of disguise, making everyone blind to the truth of human
George Orwell quote, “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” The documentary, “The Mask You Live In”, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom shows different ages of males who struggle to be themselves while battling America’s limited meaning of manliness. George Orwell quote, “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” Influenced by the media, among their age group, and the grown-ups in their lives, adolescents dissociate their emotions, disrespect women, and is aggressive. Society gender stereotypes affect young males to change to fit into the societal norm as they characterize “real” men.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
Angelou and Dunbar speak of hiding their true identities in the face of the world and it's adversity. Both authors speak to a communal mask that all men and women wear. Angelou and Dunbar suffer in their lives, so they must wear a mask to hide themselves from the glaring public eye, for the public cannot help them. The mask forms their identity to the world, but they themselves have a personal identity that only those truly close to them know of. In a wider sense, everyone wears a mask; hiding themselves from everyone else.
“Be a man”, is on of the most destructive phrases to tell boys and men. The Mask You Live In explains the struggles boys and men have growing up in a patriarchal society. I chose to watch this to understand how men feel oppressed. All year, I became aware of females and their struggles in the patriarchy. It is interesting to see that men are affected too. The documentary should have had more personal stories because it allows the audience to connect with and have empathy for men. On the other hand, the movie thoroughly demonstrated the inner conflict boys and men face in society. Men feel they must be strong and dominate. They feel they need to hide emotion and empathy in order to fit in. They must be manly in order to
Social psychology is the study of our thoughts, feelings, and behavior about other people and how other people influence our feelings. Social psychology is mainly based around stereotyping, discrimination, and prejudice. In the documentary The Mask You Live In, these three factors come into play in more lives than most people realize, and also have major effects to people’s lives. In our society, many schemas have been developed, which now result in discrimination if a person does not fit that schema. This will then cause many people to develop psychological issues.
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.
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.
“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.
"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.