By doing this, their oppressors will see them as really cooperating by being the caricatures that they want them to be. The African Americans have devised a way of getting back at their oppressors by having a vague face and a smile on their faces that does not necessarily reflect their inner emotions and their thoughts. Dunbar questions the problems further by asking the thing that the African Americans did to deserve the treatment they get from the other people who have enslaved them and further exposing them to harsh oppressive conditions. This could be their freedom or perhaps a fair treatment where they’ll no longer have the necessity to pretend and can have the ability to express their real emotions. In the line “as to why if the world otherwise be?’’ Dunbar questions why there can’t be otherwise in the conditions facing African Americans. In the initial stanza, the mask that Dunbar discusses may be the mask that hides the true feelings and ideas of the African Us citizens. The whites deal with the African Us citizens badly by the whites and for that reason they elect to hide their real emotions and pretend to end up being contented with the procedure they are obtaining from the whites. The correct knowledge of the ‘we’ is as a result taken up to address the circumstances of the African Us citizens. In this poem, Dunbar describes the way in which where Blacks hide their genuine emotions and outwardly stay indifferent to the cruelties they experience as slaves or in oppression. This interpretation isn’t correct upon reading the poem against other works or poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar such as for example “Sympathy” and taking into consideration the context of the poem. The ‘We’ in this poem has become misunderstood to spell it out humanity however. He or she describes the inhuman and senseless therapy of African Americans. Paul Laurence Dunbar in his poem “We all Wear the mask” describes the health of the African Us citizens during his time. Stuetley received a BA in from Pace University in 2015.1.4 Function Cited “We Use the Mask” Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar Essay Introduction
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He is currently a member of the Enfoco Professional Development Series. Stuetley’s work has been exhibited in the New Orleans African American Museum and The Living Gallery. Exploring realms of self-identity, his work investigates issues of vulnerability and the role of societal stigmas. Through portraiture he examines the interplay between race and gender. Cotton, pearls, and band-aids covers thematic issues over systematic brutality, sexual politics, and gender nonconformity.ĭondre Stuetley is a visual artist, currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. Found objects are symbolically used as props, discussing the struggles and perseverance of African Americans reclaiming a sense of self. A mecca for differential black identities, I find my subjects in everyday walks of life. Each black and white portrait is taken around New York City. Through portraiture, I question the roles of patriarchy, racism, homophobia and gender discrimination on the dismantling of black subjectivity. My body of work examines the reclaiming of black identity and space within a societal oppressive state.