“We Wear the Mask”
The poem “We Wear the Mask”, written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, is a reflection
of how everyday life was for African Americans in slavery or after it. A mask is a
covering that’s hides a person’s face to keep their identity a secret. In this poem, a mask
is a metaphor for an untrue version of one’s self which is presented to society, in order
to cover up true emotions and beliefs. In regards to actual slaves, they had to pretend to
be happy and joyful in order to please their owners and to make their everyday lives a
little bit easier. Dunbar himself was never a slave but both of his parents were. Growing
up in Ohio, which was a “free” state, Dunbar was cognizant of the experiences his
parents and others had endured while they were slaves.
Everyone knows the popular phrase “You can’t judge a book by its cover”. People
can express certain feeling on the outside in order to mask the true feelings on the
inside. One of the most common ways of showing feelings on the outside is smiling.
There are many everyday situations that require people to put a smile on their face. It
could be an employee who hates their job and has to put on a smile for his or her face
for their superiors in order to stay employed. Nonetheless, in the 19th century, African
American people in or directly after the enslavement period had to put smiles on their
faces in order to stay alive or keep from becoming the victims of insults or
violence.
The opening stanza of the poem indicates that the group represented by the
speaker pays a “debt” to “human guile” by wearing a “mask that grins and lies.”
(Carroll) The meaning behind this is that a smile is shown while the truth is being
hidden. The speaker goes on to say “It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” (Dunbar
2). This mask which “hides our cheeks” is meant keeps true expressions from being
discovered by another. It also “shades our eyes” by keeping one of a person’s most
animated facial feature, the eyes, hidden so that what is being thought cannot be
exposed. It’s a mask of a phony, insincere smile that conceals “torn and bleeding
hearts” (Dunbar 4) of many African Americans. Even though African Americans are
hurting on the inside for all of the injustice that they are going through, they remained
