The Power In and Of Words Paul Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a lyrical poem describing the human struggle of masking severe pain and turmoil through powerful language and blunt metaphors.
The most obvious metaphor includes the mask, eyes, and cheeks. Dunbar writes, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-” (11. 1-2). The mask is a metaphor for the face that black Americans put on to hide emotion and personality. This mask allows its wearer to emphasize a facade and to protect the wearer from their own actions. The “grin” of the mask means that the mask is nice and peaceful, but the word “lies” insinuates a dark and damaged appearance (1.1). By pairing these words with the conjunction “and” it emphasizes the severity of the inner turmoil and pain the human behind the mask is facing (1.1). The "shad[ing] [of] [their] eyes" is a metaphor for the hidden emotions and the way humans express true …show more content…
He writes, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile” (1.4). Line 4 begins describing the darker side of the mask and showing the pain hidden behind it. Those hearts are not just "torn" but also "bleeding" which really emphasizes the struggle and contrast that the speaker addresses by using a mask (1.4). On one side there is the happy facade, and on the other there is the blunt truth. The word “torn” (1.4) emphasizes the inner struggle of being pulled back and forth between the pain and the “grins” (1.1). The word “bleeding” implies the pain and injury. The reader can assume that the bleeding symbolizes pain from a more serious injury compared to a paper-cut or the likes thereof. Another example of the suffering is, “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries/ To thee from tortured souls arise” (11.10-11). The “tortured souls” and the cry for a higher power shows that the suffering goes far beyond the physical world and into the spiritual realm
The most obvious metaphor includes the mask, eyes, and cheeks. Dunbar writes, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-” (11. 1-2). The mask is a metaphor for the face that black Americans put on to hide emotion and personality. This mask allows its wearer to emphasize a facade and to protect the wearer from their own actions. The “grin” of the mask means that the mask is nice and peaceful, but the word “lies” insinuates a dark and damaged appearance (1.1). By pairing these words with the conjunction “and” it emphasizes the severity of the inner turmoil and pain the human behind the mask is facing (1.1). The "shad[ing] [of] [their] eyes" is a metaphor for the hidden emotions and the way humans express true …show more content…
He writes, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile” (1.4). Line 4 begins describing the darker side of the mask and showing the pain hidden behind it. Those hearts are not just "torn" but also "bleeding" which really emphasizes the struggle and contrast that the speaker addresses by using a mask (1.4). On one side there is the happy facade, and on the other there is the blunt truth. The word “torn” (1.4) emphasizes the inner struggle of being pulled back and forth between the pain and the “grins” (1.1). The word “bleeding” implies the pain and injury. The reader can assume that the bleeding symbolizes pain from a more serious injury compared to a paper-cut or the likes thereof. Another example of the suffering is, “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries/ To thee from tortured souls arise” (11.10-11). The “tortured souls” and the cry for a higher power shows that the suffering goes far beyond the physical world and into the spiritual realm