Failure Of Language In Jacqueline Berger's They Wear The Mask

Failure of Two Poems “A language that takes our emotions seriously and gives them real weight in our lives encourages us to think and be and act differently” by Dorothee Solle (www.azquotes.com). We use language sometimes to bring happiness to someone or sometimes pain to them. A lot of people might or might not know how language can hurt one’s emotion and yet people still say words that is more hurtful than knife itself. So, this paper will focus on the Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” and Jacqueline Berger’s “the Failure of Language,” poems to answer how individuals hide behind a mask or a language. Speech and expression is a way where individual might be affected in a good or bad way if so they wear a mask or use language to

It is simple; everyone hides behind language at some point to avoid pain or not to get hurt so people say what society wants it hear. “My students believe it’s important / to get the words right. / Once said, they can never be retrieved” (17) in this line of the poem shows what people say is important regardless of what being said. The words coming out of one’s mouth is remembered by people even the good and the bad, so people say what they want to say carefully and nicely as possible. The reason being is that once said it will be there and cannot be taken back. It is like language is important tool to tell the true or the lie. Students in this poem believes that what being said can hurt someone and when the damaged is done it cannot be fixed that easily like how it was said. Words can fly out of our mouths in seconds so spoken without choosing the words carefully it can affect someone. For example, if a homosexual identifies himself as gay, then he cannot take back what he said because it will linger there for society to laugh at or point fingers. It is easier to lie than tell the truth because society will comprehend a lie. “There are no right words, / if by right we mean perfect, / if perfect we mean able to save us” (18) evidence that there are no right words that are perfect where no one will get hurt. Language does not have the power to save individuals from the pain it can produce or

“Language is our best tool, or language fails / to express what we know and feel” (17) shows that neither language nor our expression is our best tool to express how we feel. After all, language is what hurts people the most than anything else because language stabs our hearts like a knife if spoken without rationality. Author says what is language best used as. Is it a tool for people to express how they feel or fails in so many ways to make people feel better? Just like author said that each word must be carefully chosen, if not it will never be retrieved. Today, language is used for critiques, wars, and most of all humiliation of someone. Language is the source for the expressions in one’s face because words that are spoken determines where our emotions part ways or stays. For example, when someone tells a gay that he/she is a freak because of this gender identity then that individual fell into depression or in worst case scenario commit suicide. This case language spoken by that person did not only fail but was responsible for the death of that individual. This shows that language is so powerful that what it can do to person is unthinkable. “if by fails we mean ends or changed,” (17) shows that this language can be interpreted in so many ways that when language ends or changes. This means that expression can end