Wearing a mask covers up all of the flaws and insecurities we try to hide. A mask is just protection to hide feelings and emotions to be someone else. It doesn't just stop there, both poems describe how a mask serves many purposes to the wearer. As T.S. Eliot explains in his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” these ideas are expressed as metaphors comparing his life to his surroundings and asking the reader to take a trip into his bizarre life. Also included in the poem “We Wear The Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar we get the sense that wearing a mask only covers up so much. Lyrical expression is shown in both poems that gives the reader the idea that a mask is more than just a facial cover up. Both poems have different themes but covers what wearing a mask truly means. The themes shown in the poems are suffering, appearances, race , and lies. In any case, wearing a mask hides who we truly are, but it is only temporary and doesn't disguise how we truly look or feel.
As shown in the beginning of the poem “We Wear The Mask” Dunbar speaks of pain and suffering. “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile” (Dunbar 4). He says that he doesn't suffer by himself by using “We” and points out that there is conflict going on in his life. I can relate to this quote because not every day is perfect but I smile to make things seem as If they were. Second he says, “Why should the world be over-wise, in counting all our tears and sighs?” (Dunbar 6-7). In this quote, Dunbar speaks of pain and everyone around him not caring about his emotions. This makes sense because people seek attention when they're going through something and not getting it only makes matters worse.
Next, Both poems cover appearances that describe how they feel about their ...
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...opposite of my true emotions.
Therefore, a mask is more than just a cover up. It conceals emotion and tells a lie about what's really going on behind it. It gives the person who wears it confidence but also a temporary disguise to make he or she believe that they're okay. People A mask is a front to hide physical emotion and beauty and tells a story at the same time. We learn to accept that we aren't perfect and wearing a mask is temporary relief from societies judgment. People can't always embrace that they have flaws in their looks or not as happy as society wants them to be, so wearing a mask gives them the perfect opportunity to have the happiness they desire.
Works Cited
Eliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Poemhunter.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
Dunbar, Paul Laurence. "We Wear the Mask." Poemhunter.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
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.
Dunbar, Paul Laurence. “We Wear the Mask.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. Print
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. 369-372. Print.
The mask is a form of deception or illusion. Sometimes, it can be worn as both. It hides the true emotions of slaves, keeping the slave master from knowing what is going on in their minds. The mask also allows the slave to have an identity without the master’s detection. The mask gives the illusion that the slave is exactly how the masters believe, ignorant, incapable of true emotion, and unable to think for themselves.
The title itself directs readers towards a sense of assimilation by wearing a mask. Wearing a mask indicates hiding an original identity in order to please the mainstream one. This is exactly the case in “We Wear the Mask”. In this case, blacks had to hide their humiliation and suffering from their white counterparts by wearing a mask that lies. When Dunbar wrote, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile” (646), it is evident that African Americans were forced to hide their pain by showing a fake smile. They suffered emotionally on the inside but could not express it. In addition to showing a fake smile, African Americans did not care about their heritage. The third stanza reads, “But let the world dream otherwise, / We wear the mask!” (14-15). The lines do not celebrate cultural heritage because the slaves had to show pleasure while they are being tortured. Letting the world dream otherwise shows the slaves’ carelessness when it comes to expressing their identity.They are concealing their true self by hiding their pain. Hiding their pain also means hiding their cultural
Eliot, T. S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in An Introduction to Literature. Ed Sylvan Barnet et al. 13 ed. New York: Longman. 2004. 937-940.
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996. 2459-2463.
In William Golding’s “Lord Of The Flies”, a group of boys is stranded on an island that completely changes them. The boys turn totally different from how they act from society as if they were putting on masks. It’s not just the boys that wear masks, but a lot of people try to hide from other people. What a mask does is that it hides a person’s trait and shows something completely different. I have made a mask like one of the boys, Ralph, that tries to show that he’s a leader, but hides a different personality. Here are some of the qualities of my mask.
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996.
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).
Eliot, T. S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Prufrock, and Other Observations. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. N. pag. Bartleby.com. Aug. 2011. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
Nothing can cause as much suffering and pain then man to man can. Racisms, violence, hatred, cruelty, and brutal behaviours are all traces of inhumanity. Both works of literature “Strange Fruit” by Lewis Allan and “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar portray inhumanity through the imagery of tortured souls, symbols of physical pain, and the symbolic imagery within their titles.
“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.
Though a mask may just be a paper cut out, a molded piece of plastic, or in the Lord of the Flies, a painted face, they all have the same ability to create a feeling of freedom from responsibility. They may make they wearer feel more important or powerful and too good for work, leading to a lack of fulfillment of their responsibility. This belief in freedom from responsibility is best exemplified by Jack, the first one on the island to begin wearing a mask. He used a mask because he felt it gave him power and skill, giving him reason to take up hunting as a prime responsibility, opposed to keeping the fire going. In their...
When attending a masquerade, a person is expected to wear a mask. In fact, it’s looked down upon if a mask isn’t worn. But, what if for some people that mask never came off? In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, each character has constructed their own metaphorical mask that they set firmly in place every morning when exiting their bed. Each character: Nora, Torvald, Kristine and Krogstad all have masks that they put in place when speaking to each other. Throughout most of the play, it is clear that all of the aforementioned characters have multiple facades that they use when speaking to one another; often switching quickly as they begin speaking to someone else. Henrik Ibsen’s use of the masquerade serves as an extended metaphor to show the masks that the characters use in their everyday lives.