1920's

Some people like to live two life's there normal life and then there party life. The poem We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar represents this double life some people live, a double life is having two personalities. One line that stood out to me in the poem was "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". In this line the mask represents the alcohol people drink and how it hides them from the truths of there miserable life of work and family. He is saying the alcohol hides the
reality of there regular life and makes them happy and forget all the things that are burden to them, it represents there second life were they can party and let loose. This connects to the 1920's because lots of people got drunk on a regular basis. Another line that sticks out is "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!". The line in the poem represents the day after the party and how people wish that they did not have to go back to the reality of there normal life. They dream there whole life could be as easy and fun as the night before but the reality is it will never be as easy, so they go party again to feel invincible. Most people that went to party's in the 1920's were not vary happy with there lives so they went to
these party's to forget, but every morning they woke up to there old lives which disappointed them so they just party some more.