Deadly, Unna? is one year in the life of fourteen year-old Gary ‘Blacky’ Black. Like most boys his age,…
Have you ever felt uncomfortable in a gathering that caused you to agree or disagree with your belief because of the mask you wear? Masks are a manner of expression that hides one's true character or feelings; a pretense. In John Irving book, A Prayer for Owen Meany, he uses Owen's life to demonstrate the idea that masks shield beliefs.…
“In The Cemetery where Al Jolson is buried” by Amy Hempel uses the word masks throughout the story to convey guilt, fear and unacceptance of death. The first mention of the word mask is in the beginning of the story. We are just beginning to understand that Hempel is describing two people in a hospital, the narrator is visiting her friend who is sick. They are both wearing masks, the narrator checks to make sure that she is still breathing and that she is not “ used to the mask yet.” The friend has her mask hanging loose, a “pro by now.” The fact that the narrator describes her friend at being a “pro” and the fact that the narrator is not used to her masks, tells us that the narrator has not been to visit before.…
The mask is a form of deception or illusion. Sometimes, it can be worn as both. It hides the true emotions of slaves, keeping the slave master from knowing what is going on in their minds. The mask also allows the slave to have an identity without the master's detection. The mask gives the illusion that the slave is exactly how the masters believe, ignorant, incapable of true emotion, and unable to think for themselves.…
The congregation looks to Mr. Hooper as a role model. When he wears the black veil, he is showing the people that, even though he is the minister, he is not perfect and he committed sins just as anyone else would. Although he may be ashamed of what he has done, he is not afraid to show his people that he is also imperfect. Mr. Hooper is using the black veil to show that he realizes who has…
Jack, one of the main characters in the book, uses a mask throughout the story. He uses his mask to transform himself from the choirboy into his alter ego, the wild savage. When Jack first puts on the mask “He knelt, holding the shell of water. A rounded patch of sunlight fell on his face and a brightness appeared in the depths of the water. He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger. He split the water and leapt to his feet, laughing excitedly. Beside the pool his sinewy body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling, He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (Golding 63-4). In…
In “The Minister's Black Veil,” There is a pastor, Mr. Hooper, who starts wearing a black veil. This disturbs the townspeople and causes them to do outrageous things. Mr. Hooper never tells why he wears the veil, but one reason he wears the veil could be to show that everybody has secrets, everybody has something that they hide from the rest of us. In turns, he wants to prove a point, that we all need to remove our veils, we all need to stop keeping these deep dark secrets from everybody. Why he wants to prove this point is unknown to everybody but him.…
After reading Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask,” I feel the poem was meant for an educated audience since the dialect was written in Standard English. In the first line, “We wear the mask that grins and lies,” the African American people are telling their side of the story through this poem. How they truly feel is contrary to their smiles, although, they suppose that things should not be any different. The author is trying to show the audience that many African-Americans are putting on a front for the world to see while, they endure their pain silently.…
As the war changes so does the young and innocent mind of Paul Baumer. This is shown not only in his thoughts, but in the actions that he takes throughout the novel itself. Specifically, Paul’s mind changes because of his views on the war, how he witnessed the death of his classmates, and the battles that are fought change his personal view of life, and what it means to him as well as the war in itself.…
In the short story, Father Hooper chooses to wear a black veil over his face for the rest of his life. Though many people believe it is a punishment for some terrible sin that he has committed we, the reader, discover that he has chooses to wear the veil to reflect the hidden sins within himself, but he still reminds those nearby that all God's creatures have the same hidden sins, and therefore, instead of wearing a black veil, they hide their sins behind a false front, like wearing a mask. "The Minister's Black Veil," Mr. Hooper wears a black crape veil that falls over his face, hiding it from his congregation, who quickly are unnerved by this action, wondering why he is wearing the veil. Further, the ironic aspect of this action of Mr. Hooper is that not only does it affect the other members of the community, but it profoundly affects him, as well, serving both external and internal conflicts. However, the veil does little but alienate Mr. Hooper from others, rather than getting them to look into their own…
at first i believed the poem, a secret life by stephan dunn, was going to be about a person living a double life. however i realized the secret life dunn was reffering to are the secrets we hold which caught my eye. i believe each and every one of us contain secrts, it is part o our human nature. as dunn mentiones, we shouln't have a secret life but we all keep our secrets inside, keeping it alive. i can personally relate to those secrets because i know we are scared or too embarressed to share to share with neither our closest friend. we have an obsession with proteting others or and oursleves, we forget to speak our minds and be honest. there are lines dunn analyzes this concept which are my favorite lines.…
Dunbar’s We Wear the Mask addresses the faults of humanity and the intersectional themes of race, society and class within the poem. The “mask” within this piece is symbolic of the ways in which society structures and organizes individuals to conform to societal standards. To support this theory - Dunbar uses the American Dream and slavery to remind his readers “we” wore the mask back then and “we” still wear the mask to this day.…
What is fire culture? What does that even mean? Well, I guess to know, you have to know something about what culture is and what cumulative it deposits of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, hierarchies, religion and more. Now imagine having to live with people you do not know and having different work experience, beliefs, background, age etc. Well, that is what firefighters do. How does this work you may ask? It works because they have the same goals, the same values, and there is not really that many careers out there where you have a second family, where you know your brother or sister will not only have your back when it counts but one day may even save your life. Just like any good organization it has its challenges and these challenges have been changing the fire services since the 1950s.…
“These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past” (20).…
In Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, she develops the progression of the characters in relation to The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock. The characters, young girls raised as if they were wolves, are compared to the handbook with optimism that they will adapt to the host culture. The girls’ progression in the five set stages are critical to their development at St. Lucy’s. The author compares Claudette, the narrator, to the clear expectations the handbook sets for the girls’ development. Claudette’s actions align well with the five stages, but she has outbursts that remind her of her former self.…