Social Media Response

  This painting was created by Pawel Kuczynski in 1976.  In this illustration, there is a naked baby winding up a white dove with an olive branch and is surrounded by toy soldiers.  I think it means that there needed to be a call for peace during the Vietnam War because of all of the casualties.  I think that Kuczynski was trying to say that many children lost their fathers because of the war and that they wished that there would be no more fighting.  Kuczynski probably thought that our society was too concerned with winning the war that we forgot about the people that died in the process.

Kuczynski is succeeds in portraying the feeling of desperation because the use of the baby showed that someone had to call for peace because no one else would.  He used archetypes to explain his views because he wanted to make the viewers think of his message.  The archetypes that he used were the white dove with an olive branch and the red background.  The white dove and olive branch are a universal symbol for peace and the red means blood.  Kuczynski uses the red background to stand for the blood that was spilled during the Vietnam War. 

If you just took a passing glance at this painting, you would probably think that it looked stupid or bizarre.  Once you dig deeper and focus on the message behind the pictures, then you'll get what the artist is trying to say.  Overall, I liked this painting because it really made me think when I tried to find the meaning.

In Depth Thinking With "We Wear the Mask"

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

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.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

 "We Wear the Mask" -Paul Laurence Dunbar

I think that Dunbar wrote this poem to express how a person would hide behind a facade to hide what he/she was going through.   "WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—  This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. " - This excerpt means that we lie to people with an act that everything is okay and pay for it by suffering in silence.  "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. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!"  In this excerpt, the author is trying to ask why the world should care about what we are going through if we don't care enough to tell.  Even though we could be suffering, no one would know because we choose how to represent ourselves to others.       

Dunbar uses rhyme, repetition, hyperbole, metaphors and personification in this poem. The personification used is in blue, hyperbole is in pink, metaphor is in red, repetition is in orange, and rhyme in green.  I think Dunbar used these devices to make a reference to how people act in real life.  

I think that the author was successful in conveying that we hide what we are going through because after reading this poem, I felt moved by his words and the truth behind them.  Overall, I felt that the poem was very deep and that it became one of my favorites.