Never judge a book by its cover Essays - African Clothing, Mask

Never judge a book by its cover. The happiest person you know could be the most broken. As human beings it has become almost instinct to wear our masks. The poem We Wear Our Masks, by Paul Laurence Dunbar due to time period implies the day to day struggle for the African American race to keep face. Though Dunbar structured the poem so it could be interpreted generally, giving the reader the feeling of entrapment and objection to letting the world see anything but the mask. Time period was key to understanding the underlying meaning of the poem. The tone implies it is pertaining to slavery and the trouble the African American race faced. This poem cries out with the hurt of the slaves having to endure that daily persecution. With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, the slaves underwent a loss of identity pushing them to enable this grand faade. Durbars phrasing suggests as if their heads are a prison for tortured souls. Though the tone gives a slight feeling of satisfaction at the world believing in the lie, rather than taking pity upon them. We Wear the Mask exemplifies the strength and perseverance of the African American race but can also be generalized to all of humanity. Dunbar using the term we leaves room for the poem to be interpreted generally to apply to all of humanity. He is not excluding himself either. We as a society have at one point felt the strain of what other decide based off of gender and race. The mask is what we put on the hide our emotions, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes. Eyes are portrayed as the window to the soul, with eyes hidden it is easy to lie about our emotions. Dunbar feels the mask is a debt we pay to human gile, it is in human nature to be deceitful. Dunbar questions why the world should ever see humanities raw self and feelings. He believes the world should only see us with our masks on. Durbars use of Nay exemplifies his objection. This poem conveys since we cannot be true to ourselves we cannot expect more from the world but lies. It can even be applied to the irony of today in the Medias expression of what is acceptable but telling children to be themselves. Humanity will always wear a mask, whether for being spiteful or insecure. Dunbar executes his phrasing so you feel the entrapment but gain satisfaction with this new understanding of the world unable to take pity upon us. Though slavery has ended people will always make decisions upon race and gender.