In the lines, ‘We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile’-the poet suddenly remembers the past life of American Negroes, their heroism in desperate situations, the inhuman treatment they received at the hands of their so-called masters, the history of slavery and oppression, escape on foot and death of many salves etc. Because the All-Pervading and the All-knowing Lord can understand the reasons as to why one is obliged to wear the masks to enable one to overcome the hopeless situations in life. Our heart and minds are not involved in those emotions.Īfter a matter of fact introduction to the mask, the poet comes to the serious aspect– the necessity to wear the mask! He makes an agonized prayer to Christ as he writes, ‘We smile, but O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise.’ Here, the poet pleads forgiveness with the Lord while he submits to him the reasons for compulsorily wearing the mask. What we talk is the rehearsed dialogue written for us by others. When we wear masks we are like actors in a drama. In such situations human beings wear masks to hide the reality of the difficult situation. Rather we are inclined to suffer privately. We sincerely don’t wish others– our intimate friends and well-wishers– to know about our suffering and sympathize with us. May be that we wear mask not to outsmart others, but with a genuine feeling to hide our true emotions, the suffering on account of trials and tribulations. We switch-off and switch-on the grin, because it is the grin that is meant to lie. We are permanently at war with our own selves and think of victory through guile. We pretend to believe others to please them and try to please others by our pretense. Knowing fully well that pretense will not pay in the long run, and yet we pretend! The shadow is not the reality of a personality and yet we think about the shadow-the mask! We have a casual approach towards honesty. To hide the true emotions in front of other human beings, for whatever reasons, we wear masks. We can gauge an individual by studying the reactions on one’s face. One can’t study a man by studying one’s palms, hair, legs or foot. That’s what Paul Laurence Dunbar means– we wear the mask! The mask is sandwiched between perception and presentation of issues. Our priorities within and without are mostly different and they are guided by extraneous considerations. Even when we pretend to walk on the royal road, we keep in mind the plan of escape through the secret route. A hidden agenda is part of our declared and published agenda.
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There is a good admixture of conflict within the co-operation we extend in a given situation. We change the track of the talk, just like a chameleon changes colors. We know what to talk to a particular individual and what not to talk.
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We converse with the people with a purpose. Our disposition with A is different from that of B.