We Wear the Mask

We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a poem that really stuck out to me because of finding myself in it as well as the poignancy of the poem. Throughout the semester, as a class, we have discussed the idea of people wearing masks. We said that everyone has a different persona they were at different times. People act differently in the workplace than they would at the bar. It is just one of those things in life that we all must accept. The poem is saying that we all have masks. We could be unhappy and wanting to burst into tears but we fight them back. We put on our happy mask. Even though our masks may be deceitful it is something that we all do.