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  • Essay / The resilience of Paul Laurence Dunbar in We Wear The Mask

    On June 27, 1872, the United States emerged from the chains of slavery and a baby was born, Paul Laurence Dunbar. His parents are African American or known at the time as freed slaves, who faced many racial difficulties. Paul Laurence Dunbar became a famous poet regardless of the difficulties he faced in his life, and one of his poems is "We Wear the Mask", reflecting how resilient he is in life and expresses how dark the reality was at the time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe life of Paul Laurence Dunbar begins with his parents and what they experienced. “Many of their experiences of slave and plantation life influenced Dunbar's later writings” (Paul Laurence Dunbar). Previously, his father, Joshua, volunteered during the civil war while his mother, Matilda, was already married. However, their lives were not comfortable with the end of the civil war, and they did not get along with Joshua, unable to find a stable job, becoming an alcoholic, leaving Matilda to divorce him. However, Matlida, realizing her son's talent for writing, made sure to allow him to pursue studies rather than work. Thanks to his mother's efforts, Dunbar completed all of his education even though he was the only African American in his class. This must have affected him hard, as the children looked up to adults and his friends upon realizing that his color treated him differently. Even though Dunbar faced such treatment, it did not stop him from becoming editor of his high school newspaper and publishing his poetry in local newspapers. After graduating from high school, he wanted to go to college or journalism, but was denied. he began working as an elevator operator to support himself. However, this did not stop him from reading or writing, and his former teacher made him give a poetic speech. This earned him praise and prompted him to self-publish his work. He gained support, like Frederick Douglass, and a benefactor to publish the second work which brought him national fame. He then began giving public readings, toured London, and worked at the Library of Congress; but he fell ill with pneumonia. He turned to alcohol and lived the rest of his life at home with his mother while continuing to write. Paul Laurence Dunbar died on February 9, 1906. Dunbar was stubborn about what he wanted to do, regardless of the racial restrictions he faced, such as how he continued to write and read without continuing his education. This makes him seem like he has a trait of resilience, and this can be seen in his poem "We Wear the Mask". The first line begins with the title and ends with “grins and lies” (Dunbar). This is a personification, but the title in the first line indicates the importance of the ordeal that everyone claims while the ending implies how a person survives. The reason someone would put on a mask may seem ghostly, but in Dunbar's shoes, it is his reality, as he had to go to school every day, not caring about how he looked or how he was treated. he received. The rest of these lines making up the first stanza feature more imagery like “bleeding hearts, we smile” or “a mouth with myriad subtleties.” All of this highlights the pain in Dunbar's heart of going without his dream job every day or pretending that everything is fine, even though hatred is everywhere. This is also reflected throughout the..