The Mask Poem: An Analysis Of They Wear The Mask

We Wear the Mask is about the idea that we wear masks that hide our true feelings. The speaker speaks on severity of the pain and suffering that these masks hide from others. Throughout the poem we begin to understand that all of the politeness and gloomy emotions are just unrealistic disguises of the truths of what is hidden behind those masks. In example, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” exemplifies that we wear masks that grins, yet lies because it doesn 't show one 's true emotions. The speaker throughout the poem continues to refer to a “mask”. Masks are often used to show lies, falseness, and to hide someone 's true feelings. The speaker’s poem is a direct interpretation of how masks are …show more content…
The speaker refers to a “smile” in the poem. The symbol of the smile exemplifies that one might grin and handle it and hide their true feelings. This hidden smile, shows with this smile, the situation is worse because that smile is hiding the full extent of the emotional battle that is referred to in the poem. Dunbar uses repetition with the word “we”. One could ask.. who is “we”? We is primarily focused on African Americans. But, if you look at it from a different perspective, “we” is also referring to people as a whole. For example, the title, contains the word “we”. Using "we" in the title adds to the literary purpose of showing that the whole poem wears an unhonest mask, hiding its true feelings. Repeating the word “we” shows that the readers of this poem can have a feeling of relation; at times in life wearing a mask to shadow our true feelings. Any reader of the poem can apply this word to the person of their choosings. It is deemed to be written towards African Americans because of its context, and Dunbar was famously known for African American …show more content…
It was so greatly relatable, and looked upon, which are some of the main reasons that it affected society. In example, this poem shows how people tend to wear a mask at times to hide their true emotions. Many people may relate to this not only because they mask their feelings, but because as said in the poem, people tend to put on a phony smile and this hiding of one 's feelings often makes you feel worse, yet you don’t want to burden others with the contagion of a frown. Society relates to this poem as a whole because instead of aiming the direct message towards just African Americans, the use of “we” makes any reader of the poem feel like they too, wear a mask that shadows their true feelings. This poem paved the way for many poets to start to break the chain of traditional African American literature, showing that this type of writing was starting to shift in society. Authors such as William Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne were also impacted by this poem, AND the author himself, showing a new grounds for African American