TITLE: We Wear the Mask
AUTHOR: Paul Lawrence Dunbar
STYLE: Personal response
Speaker: someone who longs for acceptance
Occasion: reflection about one’s day to day lifestyle
Audience: anyone who can relate to feeling sheltered or hidden behind the truth or the “mask”.
Purpose: to reveal how some people may feel living in a world where they are different or hidden behind the truth.
Subject: wearing the “mask” to hide how one truly feels or what one may want to do.
TONE: revealing, optimistic, hopeful, truthful
Recently, I have been wearing “the mask”. After living in America for 18 years, my family has been faced with a life changing decision; whether or not we can continue to reside legally in the United States. My family immigrated to the United States when I was six months old and this has always been my home. Now, there is a possibility that I will be packing my belongings and relocating to a place I unfamiliar with. While all of this may be happening during my last year of high school, I try not to let it phase me. I wake up every morning, get dressed for school, and treat every day as if it were my last and in most cases as if I am not in this situation to begin with. I try to laugh off the pain and uncertainty and especially the stress. I “wear a mask” to hide how I truly feel because the normal Evelyn is loud and happy all of the time despite all odds. I would not say I wear the mask that “grins and lies” rather I wear the mask to contain and control the wild emotions ready to disperse and inflate.
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1 comment:
I am glad that I am responding to your wonderful and touching poem. I like your response for many reasons, one is because in some ways the situation your in can one day come for us and by us I mean my parents. My parents are illegal immigrants and while some see your situation and feel bad, some dont realize that it might happen to them. I dont know if you understand what I am trying to say, but I like your interpertation of the poem, I also gave a response, but it was quite different than yours. I talked more about the acceptance people want from society that causes them to wear the mask. Overall, I like the way you viewed the poem and put it into your own voice.
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