IB English - Journal 15

Journal 15

This week we discussed the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. For this journal, explore your mask. What does it say? What does it hide? Who built it?

Journal #15:

   Dunbar poem, "We wear the mask," is about how all individuals wear a mask. In the first five stanzas, Dunbar describes the mask as a cover that lies and smiles while behind the mask the emotion is the opposite. In the next paragraph, first stanza, it reads that the world is over wise. I believe that  this stanza suggest that the world is interested in how we express certain emotions. Sadness and depression are the emotions most investigated by the world, suggested by the terms, "Tears," and "Sighs." It is the over-analyzation of the world that leads individuals to put on a mask due to fear or shame. Fear of what the world might think of our sadness and/or depression. Shame for the envisioned reaction of the world in response to the sadness and/or depression.