"We Wear The Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the poem "We Wear The Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The writer explains that the poem suggests that the nature of the mask that is worn is far more complex than a mask made of paper or plaster. The writer further discusses how the poem strikes a contrast between African Americans' exposed social faces and the bleeding hearts within their apparently smiling, happy exteriors. The writer points out that Dunbar does not speak only for himself in the poem, but for his entire race of people. The writer concludes that the poem does not tell Whites to treat African Americans with greater dignity, instead it functions as a revelation and an explanation.

From the Paper:

"The poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote his 1913 poem "We Wear the Mask" in open defiance of the commonly accepted fallacy of his day that African-Americans were happy in the severe roles they were forced to assume in the face of white racism. Dunbar uses irony to redefine the positive connotations of smiling. He also uses the religious rhetorical tropes of exclamation and crying out to God to further convey the difference between the false face African-Americans were forced to wear to earn a living in white society and the pressure they feel within as a result of this cognitive dissonance."

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