Most would agree that putting a smile on the face will almost allow a feeling of joy to arise from within. Furthermore, what is known is that every coin has two sides and within this dark side, the smile has many different facets. Thought and discipline in civil resistance to others who view some as inferior is the sign of a good man. In “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the sides he shows is his oppression in the world and the vagueness that needs to be thought about; through his poem he shows the revolting world in which he lives and the smile of darkness to hide from the evils of the world. In the initial stanza, it is about dissimulation and deception that hides from a possible treacherous outcome. The author writes, “We wear the mask that smiles and lies / It hides our cheeks and shields our eyes / This debt we pay to human cunning” (Dunbar 1-3). At the forefront, this involves a group hiding their true feelings from others by telling us. It is the face of a deceptive refusal to accept wrongs as rights for the oppressors around them. The second line explains...