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We War The Mask By Paul Laurence Dunbar

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We War The Mask By Paul Laurence Dunbar
The poem “We Wear the Mask”, by Paul Laurence Dunbar symbolizes that the mask is African Americans that used a mask to cover up their true emotions. The authors use rhetorical questions, and an apostrophe also having a sarcastic tone. The rhetorical question “Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs?” it is stating the world hasn’t changed in so many years, why should it now change the opinions of the people now. He’s being sarcastic in which he chooses to believe it will ever change. Dunbar uses an apostrophe to end the poem “we smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise”. It is talking to Christ that this “mask” won’t go away as long as the African American population get the equal

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