“I worried so much about how I looked and whether I was doing things right, I felt half the time I was impersonating a girl instead of really being one.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
Originating in the 14th & 15th century in Europe, masquerade balls were simply a way for people to mask their true identities and lives for a night. But what happens when this masking lasts a lifetime? I think it’s important that we come to the realization that these, one night masquerade ball antics, are becoming real world problems where people don’t just get to take off their masks in the morning. Where this issue lies most prominently can be seen during the post civil war period. In Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask”, Dunbar highlights the oppression of the identities of African Americans and how they had no other choice but to accept it. Truth is, this poem goes far beyond the civil war time period, because this poem holds universal truths that we still see in our world today. In 2001, Sue Monk Kidd published her novel, The Secret Life of Bees, which also incorporates characters that touches base with these issues.
Let’s break each one down a bit to help reveal these similarities.
Throughout “We Wear the Mask”, Dunbar uses the extended metaphor of a “mask” to describe the hidden inner battle African Americans fought silently while being persecuted and mistreated without being able to claim their own identity and fight back. “We wear the mask… with torn and bleeding hearts we smile…”, explains Dunbar. This mask that people, such as African Americans, had to wear was a fake facade of an artificial happiness. Beneath that lies the true feelings that society pretends to be oblivious to. Dunbar uses the rhetorical question, “Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs?” This question portrays the irony of the situation because if people truly considered the wrongness of the inhuman treatment of African Americans in this time period they would do away with these injustices.
WARNING: NOVEL SPOILERS BELOW ! ! !
Now let’s talk about The Secret Life of Bees.
A little background disclaimer: This novel was set in 1964, right at the time when the Civil Rights Act was passed which was enacted to ban segregation in most public setting on the basis of race, sex, religion, and nationality.
Okay, that being said, despite the passing of the Civil Rights Act, mistreatment towards minority groups still remained prominent. In the novel one of the main characters, Rosaleen, is the caretaker of Lily, the fourteen year old protagonist and narrator of the story. The close relationships Lily had to other colored women made many people uneasy.
“[Police] There’s colored people here. You understand what I’m saying?… it’s not natural, that you shouldn’t be…lowering yourself”(Kidd 198).
Mistreatment towards colored people in the novel can also be seen when some men began to speak in a derogatory way toward Rosaleen, as she attempts to register to vote. After being instigated Rosaleen chooses to fight back by spitting on their shoes and refused to apologize. Once the police arrive not only do they arrest Rosaleen but they beat her. Why is this still happening? The Civil Rights Act was just passed therefore the problems seen by Dunbar, in the post civil war age, should be gone right? This type of stereotyping of a certain group of people didn’t just affect African Americans it stretched out to other groups of people.
Even Lily felt categorized into a group apart from other girls her age, the group that lacked mothers that left her feeling inferior and ashamed. “You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair”(Kidd 3).
Hopefully now the connection between this poem written in 1895 and novel set in 1964 are more transparent. “We Wear the Mask”, holds broader concepts about certain stigmas that lie within different minority groups which are still very relevant in today’s society. This is why despite the time gap between the two works of literature, they both hold similarities of minority groups struggling with shame of their status and having to make the choice to fight back or stand down. This can cause people of all kinds to feel the need to cover up their real identities and eventually even lose themselves after disguising who they truly are for so long.
What are you feeling the need to mask in your life?
Citations
- All That’s Interesting. “The Glamorous And Gruesome History Of The Masquerade Ball.” All That’s Interesting, All That’s Interesting, 17 Nov. 2017, allthatsinteresting.com/masquerade-ball-history.
- Dunbar, Paul Laurence. “We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44203/we-wear-the-mask.
- Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. Penguin Books, 2013.
The Secrets Within 