We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask by paul dunbar In this paper we will examine how human faces are equated with wearing a mask and lies are a necessary part of everyday life. Throughout the poem Dunbar defends why he feels there is a need to hide the true self. This can be a coping mechanism because historically slaves had to hide their true feelings from their white masters. The masks Dunbar writes about hides and separates …

…the forms and conventions associated with the white literary canon perhaps to be accepted into the literary world dominated by white writers. This shows that conformity and even pretending is necessary in order to be accepted by people different to him. Everyday life is a performance and we being it’s actors have to play our part and wear our smiling masks and the audience are other people also wearing masks who watch. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**