In We Wear the
Mask, Paul Laurence Dunbars rhetoric purpose is to show the
readers how African Americans lived during the period between
slavery and the Civil Rights movement. Throughout the poem, the
author has an almost perfect rhyme scene with with just one stanza
thats different. The first stanza follows an AABBA pattern of
rhyming and the third follows AABBAC, while the second stanza
follows an AABC pattern. He did this on purpose to make the poem
stand out from other poems by making it unique. The one stanza that
doesn't rhyme also grabs the readers attention because it doesn't
rhyme where theyre expecting it to. Not only would the poem stand
out from other poems, the information about how African Americans
lived at the time would
show more content
When he refers
to the mask in the line We wear the mask, he is talking about how
African Americans had to hide their true feelings at the time the
poem was written to avoid being attacked by the rest of the
country. When he talks about shading something in the line It
hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, hes talking about African
Americans hiding their eyes so the rest of America couldnt see how
they truly felt about how they were being treated. They would be
hiding their eyes so people couldnt see them crying. In We Wear
the Mask, the author uses the line We wear the mask 3 times,
which is 20% of the poem. He is using repetition to make sure the
readers remember that line. The line we wear the mask refers to
how African Americans had to hide their true feelings throughout
the time between slavery and the Civil Rights movement to avoid
being verbally or physically attacked. The poem begins and ends
with We wear the mask. The authors rhetorical purpose in this is
to make sure that line sticks with the reader. Its the opening
line to pull the reader in because theyre curious about what the
author means, and its the ending line to make sure it stays in the
readers mind even after they read the
Other samples, services and questions:
When you use PaperHelp, you save one valuable — TIME
You can spend it for more important things than paper writing.
