Compare And Contrast We Wear The Mask And Townie

According to the Meriam- Webster Dictionary, a mask is, “something that serves to conceal or disguise” (“Mask”). A mask does not necessarily have to be a physical object, it could also be a façade that a person uses to protect themselves from being seen as vulnerable by others. “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Townie by Andre Dubus, are pieces of literature that depict the use of an intangible mask in two very different ways. In both pieces the narrators put up a front to hide their true selves, however the narrators use the front differently and eventually accept their masks in different ways.
“We Wear the Mask,” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a realist poem about people pretending to be happy as a way to cover their true …show more content…
In “We Wear the Mask,” the speaker expresses that, “We wear the mask that grins and lies” (Dunbar 1). The speaker states that they and others present an illusion of happiness by communicating ‘grins and lies.’ This false happiness is used to keep others at a distance, if others think that you are happy or content, they will not pry, but if they think you are upset others will continue to pry to see what is wrong. Many hide their struggles and true feeling behind a façade of happiness and the common overused lies of “I’m fine” and “I’m okay.” This mask is worn for the sole purpose of superficially disguising the wounds that stressors form. By smiling through the pain and acting as if nothing is wrong, the speaker and others are able to hide the effects of a difficult situation (on themselves) to the world. Essentially dismissing others curiosity and maintaining a level of secrecy in order to protect themselves from the possibility of emotional anguish in the future. The speaker of “We Wear the Mask” uses their mask to disguise their emotions and true feelings, while in Townie, the author uses his mask to protect both himself and those he holds dear to his heart. After he saw his brother brutally beaten before him, being a small, self-conscious child, Dubus did nothing but watch the attack, as he was frozen with fear. Once …show more content…
I reached up to each shoulder and unhooked both deltoids and let them fall, too; I then reached around for the muscle of my upper back, the first to show up years earlier, and dropped them at the feet of the dark dealer, speaking to him all along as if I’d never learned to do anything but talk, as if this armor I’d forged had never been needed because I could trust the humanity of the other to show itself. Trust. I was going to trust this stranger, this man who had entered my train car and not to talk. I was going to trust him to see and to listen and to do the right thing. (Dubus