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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page research paper/essay that discusses this aspect of Dunbar’s poetry. The poetry and the life of African American Paul Laurence Dunbar exemplifies a condition that W.E.B. Du Bois referred to as “double consciousness,” which is a “historical self-awareness of African Americans struggling to overcome a legacy of slavery and discrimination while claiming the rights, responsibilities and benefits of freedom” (Mullen 277). As this indicates, Du Bois, specifically addressed the problem entailed by being both black and an American. Du Bois questioned if he could be both, and a similar ambiguity is expressed in Dunbar’s poetry. For example, in “We Wear the Mask,” Dunbar “ingeniously captures the ubiquitous racial patterns of masking, dissimulation and double consciousness (Gabbin 227). This examination of Dunbar’s vision of double consciousness looks at this and other examples of Dunbar’s exquisite poetry. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khpld2c.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
is a "historical self-awareness of African Americans struggling to overcome a legacy of slavery and discrimination while claiming the rights, responsibilities and benefits of freedom" (Mullen 277). As this indicates,
Du Bois, specifically addressed the problem entailed by being both black and an American. Du Bois questioned if he could be both, and a similar ambiguity is expressed in Dunbars
poetry. For example, in "We Wear the Mask," Dunbar "ingeniously captures the ubiquitous racial patterns of masking, dissimulation and double consciousness (Gabbin 227). This examination of Dunbars vision of double
consciousness looks at this and other examples of Dunbars exquisite poetry. The opening lines of "We Wear the Mask" state express the essence of double consciousness as Dunbar describes
how black Americans assume a protective guise that is designed to appease the white mainstream. "We wear the mask that grins and lies,/It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes-/This
debt we pay to human guile" (Dunbar "We Wear"). However, in the next lines, Dunbar makes it clear that compliance with the restrictions of double consciousness comes at a huge
emotional price. "With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,/And mouth with myriad subtleties" (Dunbar "We Wear"). The next stanza asks "Why should the world be otherwise,/ In counting
all tears and sighs?" (Dunbar "We Wear"). In other words, the world is callous and pays no heed to the pain that it causes, but Dunbar pleads that they
will "only see us," which, of course, they do not (Dunbar "We Wear"). This invokes the anguished lament of the final stanza, which pictures tortured souls arising, singing, despite their
pain and their hard journey, which is what allows the "world" to "dream otherwise/We wear the mask" (Dunbar "We Wear"). As this illustrates, Dunbars concept of "masking ones true nature"
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