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Compare And Contrast We Wear The Mask And Richard Cory

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Compare And Contrast We Wear The Mask And Richard Cory
Notwithstanding their shared theme, the poems clearly differ in many ways. Firstly, while Robinson uses the unfortunate narrative of “Richard Cory” to display how people can get carried away with the notion of judging a book by it’s cover; Dunbar uses the symbol of a mask, which hides our true inner emotions and lies to others about our trying situations, to portray the theme of appearance vs. reality. The poems also differ in terms of historical context and intended audience. “We Wear the Mask” was written in 1896, a time when African Americans lived in horrible social conditions and as a result hid their grief, sadness, and broken hearts behind a façade of contentment in order to survive. They knew that if they spoke up about injustices and
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