We Wear the Mask: Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote many poems that inspired the newly freed African Americans in the United States following the Civil War. One of his most influential and remembered pieces of work was “We Wear the Mask.” In this poem, the speaker, who is either a Dunbar persona or perhaps even Dunbar himself, addresses the members of the African American community and their struggles that they face in order to gain equality within the country at that time period. Though they had technically been labeled as free men, the poem shows that the reality of their situation is far from true freedom or equality. Dunbar weaves in symbolism into his poem by speaking of a mask that the collective community wears in an effort to conceal the pain and suffering that each and every member of the African American community feels towards the racial and societal inequality that plagues them. The poem has been known as a critically acclaimed piece of work since the time of its original publication and has continued to serve as a rallying point for the African American community throughout the course of their pursuit for racial and societal equality from the era after the Civil War all the way to the Civil Rights movement.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born following the events of the American Revolution and Civil War, in the year of 1872. Both of his parents were former slaves; his mother had been a former slave who gained freedom after the Civil War, and his father was an escaped slave who had served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment ("Biography"). Clearly in the time of his adolescents and childhood, Dunbar would have been exposed to the hardships that each of his parents had faced in their lives through the way in which he was raised and the stories that they would have told him. Though the Civil War had declared that African Americans could no longer be owned, bought, or sold, there was no legislature made that guaranteed them equal treatment, and Dunbar felt the sting of racism even in the state of Ohio, which had fought for the Union in the Civil War. He had a great deal of trouble finding employment in his later adolescent life and early adulthood because of his race. This definitely had an effect on the general writer’s voice that he developed and would continue to be an integral part of what he chose to write about throughout his life.

Being that Dunbar came from a family that encouraged and supported his writing efforts, Dunbar wrote poetry for the greater part of his life - crafting such poetic prose as stimulating as Nam Le's The Boat. He began writing at the age of 6 and would continue to create new work until the time of his death at the age of 33 ("Biography"). Of the many critically acclaimed works that Dunbar produced during his lifetime, one of the most acclaimed poems that he wrote was “We Wear the Mask.” This poem was so well received by the general population that it was used as a sort of rallying point for the African American community for many years after its publication and even after Dunbar’s eventual death. The poem itself uses the metaphor of the African American community wearing a mask for society. This mask is used to “hide our cheeks and shade our eyes-,” (Dunbar 2) meaning that its purpose is to hide the true feelings that the African American community feels towards the way that they are treated. Dunbar’s poem’s speaker, who is either a Dunbar persona or simply Dunbar himself, is saying that the mask that the community must wear is a means to hide the feelings of pain and suffering that they feel so as to not let the bigots and racists of the time know that their actions have taken a heavy toll on the general population. He alludes to the pain that the community feels by saying, “With torn and bleeding heart we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties,” (Dunbar 4-5) or, “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise,” (Dunbar 10), which clearly is a reference to some of the physical and emotional pain that the community, as a whole, is feeling.

One other use of the mask metaphor is for Dunbar’s poem’s speaker to lift this mask from society’s eyes for a moment in order to give them a look into the feelings and inner experience of the African American community. The poem shows how, “he draws aside the veil of the seventh son to give the reader second sight, if only briefly, into the inner circle of the black community and that other truth so often concealed behind,” (Braxton 20). This poem also can serve as a call to attention the duality of the experiences of the races within America. Dunbar’s third verse serves as a calling out of how much the African American community suffers and even cries out to Christ for salvation, while the white community continues to live with no real understanding or appreciation for the African American community’s plight; rather, they are, “unaware of the black man’s struggle for equality in the world and for peace within,” (Braxton 26). As is stated, the majority of those that are not within the African American community do not even know of their struggles and are made aware of them through Dunbar’s poem.

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s works show a great deal of insight into the African American community and their struggles to gain the equality and peace that every human deserves regardless of race. His poem “We Wear the Mask” is a perfect example of the sentiments that many of the oppressed minority felt throughout the course of the pursuit for equality. What makes this poem so very memorable is not only the eloquent manner in which Dunbar presents it but the applications that the poem has had that have lasted almost the last century. The poem was written and published back in 1896, but it still had relevance all the way through the 1970s, as that was a time of great struggle to fully appreciate the Civil Rights Movement and a means of gaining true equality and peace for the African American community. As with many great writers, Dunbar did not live a long life, dying at the young age of 33, but the works that he produced during his short time on Earth have had a lasting impact that have served as a rallying point for the community at large and been apart of the fight for equality and freedom for a great deal after the original publication.

Works Cited

"Biography". Paul Laurence Dunbar Website: University of Dayton. 03 Feb 2003, http://www.dunbarsite.org/biopld.asp. Accessed 17 Apr. 2013.

Braxton, Joanne M. The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1993. Print.

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. "We Wear the Mask." Poem of the Week. Dodd, Mead, and Company, n.d., http://www.potw.org/archive/potw8.html. Accessed 17 Apr 2013.