We Wear the Mask

"We Wear the Mask"

We wear different faces daily as we go into the world to conquer new tasks. Many times we as people seem to put on a facade to cover up how we really feel or think about something. Webster states that a facade means a false, superficial, or artificial appearance or effect. This is what Paul Dunbar was referring to in his poem "We Wear the Mask". Paul Dunbar was a poet, novelist, lyricist, dramatist and a short story author. Dunbar was also married to Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson who was also a poet of the Nadir period. He was named the Negro Poet Laureate by Booker T. Washington because he was a poet of good works. Paul Dunbar wasn't referring to an actual mask that you would put on but the facade that we put on whether we are at home, at school, or at a place of employment. "We Wear the Mask" is about an old Negro that puts on a mask daily just to survive another day as been black in this white world. "We Wear the Mask" is another poem that is still alive today that helps us find our own identity in this world.

Dunbar "We Wear the Mask" is still alive today in the 21st Century. We see this from the president down to the least paid person in America today. Dunbar may have been writing for the Negros of the Nadir period but the Americans today are reading this poem and connecting and relating to the poem daily. "We Wear the Mask" shows the sides of the African American community coming out of a war being prideful and trying to find their self identity.

Poets during the Nadir period weren't allowed to write and express their true thoughts because they feared for their life. Dunbar dialect gives a stereotypical outlook on the African American community that we fight daily to prove to the rest of the world that not all African Americans have the same dialect and not all African American are uneducated and poor. Dunbar faced the same fight in 1895 when he wrote "We Wear the Mask".

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties. (1-5)

In this stanza Dunbar could possibly be speaking about life as elevator operator having to bit his tongue when called out his name or being accused of things he didn't say or things he didn't do. This line "With torn and bleeding hearts we smile," (4) I think has something to do with the fact that his wife family didn't like the fact that she was married to him and he had to bite his tongue to keep confusion down between himself and her family. Line 1 I think