African American Poetry
Several poems from Black Voices, as well as Harlem Renaissance Women's Poetry, make an attempt to convey the effect that hundreds of years of social and mental oppression has had on the African American people. As a result of slavery and segregation (or in other words, racism) the African American population has taken an extensive psychological beating. Both before and after Emancipation, Blacks were forced to hide their thoughts and opinions for fear that they would be hurt in some way. Out of this fear to express their emotions, African Americans developed a "mask" which they used to hide their true selves. By hiding their emotions, Blacks, especially slaves, thought of themselves as stronger and more able to conquer the racial war that was being fought everyday. Without emotion; without thought, one can go through life without ever feeling pain, despair, hopelessness, anguish; all the emotions that can cause weakness. Despite the long held tradition of suppressing every weakening emotion, African American's have begun to step out from under their veil and express themselves. Thus this concept of a "mask" has become a common theme of African American literature.
" Dunbar explicates to the reader that as a result of oppression and racism, African Americans have grown to believe that emotions only serve as weaknesses. In lines fifteen and sixteen, Delany again reinforces the mask theme, "I turned aside until the mask/ Was slipped once more in place. Delany shows the reader the effect that the mask has made, in that the woman is, "detached and cool (1). " The author also reinforces the theme by writing, " No motion e'er betrays/ The secret life within her soul, / The anguish of her days (2-4). This mini-paradise, with a roaring nightlife, attracted whites and their wallets. In line one and two of the first stanza, Dunbar begins to describe the mask itself, "We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes. " "We Wear the Mask"Paul Laurence DunbarWe wear the mask that grins and lies,It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, -This debt we pay to human guile;With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,And mouth with myriad subtleties. The author, Clarissa Scott Delany, begins the poem by describing a woman who has suppressed her feeling for her entire life. Both the prominent literary critics of his time as well as his literary contemporaries praised Dunbar. This woman, as implied in lines seven and eight, keeps her emotions so under wraps that a simple feeling of sadness is unacceptable, "To spurn emotion's fevered sway, / To scoff at tears and sighs. The African Americans that chose to follow the artistic trend of the times, knew that their literature, plays, and paintings could be used to tell the nation their story; to show people the pain African Americans have experienced. " In fact, Delany's use of the words spurn and scoff make the woman seem defiant, as if she were laughing in the face of emotion. This stanza may be the most significant of the entire poem, because he allows the reader to begin to understand the "logic" behind the use of the mask, "Why should the world be overwise? / In counting all our tears and sighs (6-7). The woman portrayed in this poem has been denied the right to feel for so long that she appears to have developed a distinctly cynical attitude toward the world.
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Acceptance Essays
