In the late 19th century, African Americans suffered pain, frustration, and anguish caused by Caucasians, as well as each other. If African Americans openly express the violence they face from Caucasians, it would lead to dangerous consequences. Sometimes African Americans hid their true feelings from each other because they did not want to be judged or cause an outcry. So they remained silent and let all this happen to them, Paul Laurence Dunbar helps all those who have lost their voice in violence to find it again, in his poem "We Wear the Mask". “We Wear the Mask” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar was made with African Americans in mind. At that time, African Americans were treated so poorly that they were like animals. Some were beaten to death while others were mistreated. They had limited rights because many Caucasians did not view other minorities as having equal status. Dunbar's poem shows the internal emotions of African Americans such as anger, fear, and sadness. He uses metaphors to explain what cannot be said in words because most African Americans do not want to be seen as weak. So they hide their emotions behind a mask that makes it seem like they are happy with everything. The poem begins with Dunbar using the word “WE”. He used this word twice, once in the title and the next time in the first line of the poem, so this word means something. The audience quickly understands that Dunbar is using “WE” to represent the entire black population. He does this to show his awareness of the social and political status of his race. mask that smiles and lies, / it hides our cheeks and protects our eyes.” He said his people wanted to cry and scream outside and show some kind of emotion in middle of paper.... ..ng their true form so that they would hide it. To try to stop themselves from explaining to people who they really are or to make people not look further to see the truth. We don't describe our true selves to others. But here, the person wearing the mask only suffers from the lie. We pretend to be someone we're not, either so we don't fit in, so we don't get judged, or so we don't believe our voices matter. So we try to be courageous and appear “normal” to be accepted by others. For African Americans in the late 19th century, they did not feel like they had voices that mattered and opinions that everyone else would listen too. so they assumed they just kept smiling and acting like nothing happened. Some people don't realize how much they suffer trying to become what society wants them to be..