People and their Masks

This week in class, we had a very interesting conversation about the masks people wear. The discussion got me curious: what drives us to "put on" a certain mask?

My theory is that our masks have to do with the way we want to progress in society. The way we act is driven by how we want our peers to view us, how we want our family to view us, and how we want our educators to see us. In addition, our masks act as a way to shield others from catching a glimpse of our vulnerability.



In my research for this blog post, I found a poem called 'We Wear the Mask' written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African-American poet who wrote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The stanza that spoke to me the most goes as follows:

    Why should the world be over-wise, 

    In counting all our tears and sighs? 

    Nay, let them only see us, while 

            We wear the mask.

This selection could not be more true of what people are always subconsciously thinking. It puts people in the lower hand if others are able to see how they are truly feeling. If society is able to "count all our tears and sighs," then society knows more about us then we want it to. 

In a sense, this is Social Darwinism. We want to appear better and stronger than everyone else. This is especially true in American societies. When we identified the stories we tell ourselves as Americans, one of the first things a student said was that we feel that we are better than the rest of the world. If America appeared vulnerable to the rest of the world, we would not be the "exceptional template" for other countries that we are today. 

In the end, our choice of mask will always have to do with our community. No matter where someone fits, or doesn't fit, in society, they will have a mask on. It's too risky to take it off.