TASK 1: In LORD of the FLIES, the concept of masks, painted faces, colors and light play a significant part in the symbolism of the text. In your journey with Julius Caesar, this concept of 2 different selves ring constantly throughout the text as well.
In your lesson today, you should have with you ALL the materials to create your own masks - of your public selves and your private selves. You are at perfect liberty to design this mask yourselves. Your mask can be 3D or 2D. You have just 1 period to complete this task.
NOTE: At the end of this period you need to hand in your masks to your teacher with a brief note of explanation for ALL the elements of your mask - shape, size, colours, embellishments etc. This is a graded piece of work.
TASK 2: Refer to the poem We Wear the Mask by Paul Lawrence Dunbar as you are doing your mask and think about the questions that follow. By the end of the period, you would have to answer all the questions listed here in the comments section.
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!
POST your thoughts on the poem, in pairs, in the comments section. You need to answer all. WRITE your name at the beginning of the comments.
1. What does it mean?
2. What do you know about the speaker and how do you know it?
3. How does the form of the poem relate to the meaning of the poem?
4. How does the poem relate to the Lord of the Flies?
This last question 5, you should answer in your own notebook.
5. How does it relate to you?
1) This poems talks about how we all put up false fronts to cover up our flaws and insecurities and along with that, who we truly are on the inside. We try so much to do as much as we can to hide our private persona from the people around us and show them our public persona instead in fear of judgement.
ReplyDelete2) The speaker must have been a person who had trouble showing to people who he must have been as a person. Many people must have judged his character, throughout his lifetime. From the number of years which he had lived, I can tell that he had died at a young age of 34, which could possibly imply that he could have faced depression and could have committed suicide, which means that he must have lived as an unhappy man.
3) The poem was written in a rhyming sequence. From this poem, I can sense a feeling of unsatisfaction and resentment towards certain people. The poem also mentioned the quote "We wear the Mask" twice, which emphasises on the deeper meaning behind the song, which is that we put on a façade.
4) This poem shares similar themes to the book.
1. What does it mean?
ReplyDelete- The main idea of the poem is to highlight how we have to put on a façade when we are out in public. This also means that all of us have different personalities when we are alone, and this poem discusses why there is a need for everyone to have two (or more) different sides of representation of ourselves.
The poem shows how we hide our 'tears and sighs' from being seen by others by wearing the mask, and this gives an idea on how we are forced to cover up our weaknesses and flaws to avoid being judged. The world is 'over-wise' when it comes to vulnerability, and therefore there is a need to 'wear a mask' and smile through clenched teeth.
2. What do you know about the speaker and how do you know it?
- The speaker had trouble showing his true self to the world and hid his pain and suffering with a smile, as inferred from the poem. His way to cope with the pain may be through writing, and it might be the only way for him to express himself truthfully, especially since he had mentioned in the poem that the world judges every flaw. This suggests that he must have been judged for being his true self, and found a need to constantly wear a mask and hide himself.
3. How does the form of the poem relate to the meaning of the poem?
- The writer used the rhyming technique when he had written this poem, which suggests that his true feelings might not have been fully revealed for the sake of 'rhyming' the poem. This again emphasises on the need to hide one's self in favour of the outside world.
4. How does the poem relate to the Lord of the Flies?
- The characters in Lord of the Flies paint their faces and hide themselves behind a mask to shrink away from responsibility of their actions (if they are covered by a mask/paint, their public identity is not seen therefore there is no one at wrong since no one can be identified). The mask serves as a platform for them to show a completely different side to them -- of savagery and violence, and hide their true identity.
1) The poem is talking about people hiding behind the ‘mask’ of different personality in front of others to avoid being judge by them. we, humans will do anything to make us look ‘flawless’ in front of others and greet each other with a smile even if we are moody inside
ReplyDelete2) The writer must have been someone who was lonely and afraid of showing his true self to others as he was scared of being judged. He must have been bullied by people when he showed his true self hence he wrote a poem about hiding behind a mask.
3) The poem was written in a rhyming sequence and it has the words ‘lies’ , ‘cries’ , and ‘sigh’ which are negative words and it has the effect of making the poem moody.
4) The poem is the similar to the book as it shows us how people would hide their true nature and you would not know someone by their appearances. Jack, in the book, hid his savagery behind a mask of civilization but when there was spark of killing the pig, he lost his control and his mask fell off.
(Naw Thet)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. The whole poem is about how people, to the author, wear masks in life to cover up their pain and sadness. They smile on the outside but really they may be suffering and crying behind their mask. However this is only natural to have masks to the author as it is the "debt we pay to human guile".
Delete2. The author has suffered a lot as he has a "torn and bleeding (heart)". But he puts on a false facade of smiles with a mask of "grins and lies". The author appears to have gone through or is going through a tiring journey in life that inspired him to write the poem as "the clay is vile beneath (his) feet, and long the mile". Yet he is seems proud of the mask he wears, as in the poem it is exclaimed "we wear the mask!".
3. The poem has rhyming words that give it a rhythmic flow but provides emphasis on the line "We wear the mask" by having it not rhyme with another line and having it appear once in the middle and another time at the end.
4. In "Lord of the Flies", the characters are shown to have masks both metaphorically and literally. The character Ralph, after being appointed as the group's chief, can speak with confidence during meetings as he has to put on the mask of a leader. However, we later see that Ralph also feels as fearful as the rest of the children and wants to go back home as badly as anyone else, as implied by him imagining himself back home. Later in the story we see Ralph's mask as chief begin to crack after Jack leave with the other boys and Ralph begins to doubt his own leadership, as shown by his less confident speech in meetings afterwards.
Jack, after leaving the group and taking some boys with him, starts his own tribe where they put on face paint as they go to hunt, steal the fire or steal piggy's glasses. These 'masks' represent the more animalistic side of the children, where they start to turn more violent and less civilised. The concept of people using masks to cover themselves is prevalent in both the poem and in "Lord of the Flies".
Asyura
ReplyDelete1. This poem conveys the message of people having desired appearances to keep up in public. People mask their true selves behind smiles and friendliness. The mask is an analogy for how people cover up their feelings and emotions by behaving oppositely and that people have different sides to themselves to show to different audiences.
2. I perceive the speaker to be rather secretive character who would not rather show their true feelings and that they seem to think that "the world" is almost gullible to accept false appearances and that no one had perhaps bothered to see beyond their mask.
3. Poems are usually perceived to be of a lighthearted and rather brighter tone due to the rhymes which create a sing song effect. This effectively creates a contrast between the poem and its meaning as the poem has a darker tone including lies and false appearances. The form in which this idea had been written in reinforces the dark tone of masking the true intent and feelings.
4. In Lord Of The Flies, the characters all put on masks to shield their real feelings. Jack hides his fear of killing another living thing by putting up a brave front and giving excuses that he was looking for a place to stab the pig. Ralph also puts on a brave front for the entire group of boys even though he was as uncertain of their situation as they were.
Benjamin Chua 3E6
ReplyDelete1.The poem portrays how people hide their true identity behind a mask or facade, this is because they do not want others to know how they truly feel or think. This can be seen as the wrote that one still smiled when he had a bleeding heart.
2. The author seems to be someone who has gone through terrible experiences. This can be seen from 'With torn and bleeding hearts we smile', suggesting that he suffered from a heartbreak, yet he still hid it with a smile so that no one knew. The author also appears to be a pessimistic individual.
3.The poem has a constant rhyming scheme which uses words such as 'lie', 'cry' and 'vile'. This adds a dismal and gloomy tone to the poem. This is relevant to the poem as it shows the hidden side of people, who they truly are behind their masks.
4. Alike the poem, the characters from Lord of The Flies puts on face paint before going hunting to conceal their true feelings, they also put on face paint as they do not want to accept that they truly are savage and ruthless. This is similar to the poem as it speaks of hiding someone's true intention and feelings.
Suffina
ReplyDelete1) It shows that people hide their emotions with a "mask" and the person they are in public is not the person they are in private. They potray themselves in public my smiling and laughing but they could be troubled with problems and suffering but do not want others to know therefore they wear a mask to hide their emotions.
2)The author represents himself and the people who is having trouble to show their true self. He had used the word "we" rather than "I". It also shows that the author was suffering with his own problems and had trouble acting as his true self in front of others and therefore hide his emotions by smiling even though he was not happy.
3) The poem rhymes and seems to be wrote with sadness and the repetition of "we wear the mask" shows that this is important and true.
4)In The Lord of the Flies , Jack wears a mask to hide his fear similar to the poem , who hides his feeling and not show others how he is feeling. Jack stared wearimg his mask when he started to be savage.
1) The poem meant that people hide their true self from public behind a mask. "With torn and bleeding hearts we smile" suggests that a person's true emotion is disguised by his expression to avoid suspicion and prevent others from knowing how he actually feels or thinks.
ReplyDelete2) The author is a realist. "We sing," implies happiness on the surface "but oh the clay is vile beneath our feet" shows the pain one is actually in. The author knows how fake one can be, not revealing his true identity and the author knows this world is not as wonderful as how they "dream otherwise". Therefore, the author is a realist.
3) The poem has a rhyming effect due to words such as "human guile" and "smile". However, even though both words produce a similar sound (rhyme), they totally contradict each other. For example, "human guile" means one's cunning intelligence in something but "smile" implies one's innocence. This emphasizes on the meaning of the poem as people's true emotions and how they portray it could be opposites and contradicting.
4) In Lord Of The Flies, there are two sides of the boys'. One side a civillised community and the other side savage. For example, Jack, leader of the choir, could lead well and give reasonable orders at times. However, when hunting, his eyes turned fiery with a mad passion to kill for meat.
1. The meaning of the poem is about how people conceal their true feelings, thoughts and identity by hiding it under a mask that only shows a positive side of them, and they try their best to achieve the high standards of society. This can be seen in 'this debt we pay to human gile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile'. It implies that the people hide their true identity as they are afraid to show the world their true selves, thinking that they will be greatly detested and judge by others around them. This wearing a mask to conceal themselves.
ReplyDelete2.The speaker is someone who went through horrible situations in his life which can relate to the people who hide their faces in the poem. This can be seen in 'We smile... our cries to thee from tortured souls arise.' It shows that even as the speaker is suffering from the horrible situation, he still chose to hide his true feelings and identity behind a mask, smiling at the people around him so that they will never know how he truely is. The speaker also appears to be someone who thinks deep and questions the way of the world.
3. The poem has certain phrases such as 'bleeding hearts' and 'tortured souls' to signify the huge amount of pain and depression that was felt, which sets a rather saddening and gloomy tone in the poem. It relates to the meaning of the poem as there is a need for the people to hide the pain and suffering that they felt from others, behind a mask so that no one will ever know their true identity.
4. The poem relates to lord of the flies as the characters in the book tend to hide themselves in certain ways in different situations, so as to convince themselves that they are not blood thirsty people who cause destruction. Which shows that they hide their true selves, just like how the poem describes of people using a mask to conceal the truth of themselves.
1.The poem talks about how we all cover up our true feelings and intentions in public and how we tend to hide our private selves from the people around us in everyday life away from their prying eyes.
ReplyDelete2.The speaker might have been someone whose private self would not have been accepted in public. In the poem, it is implied that his true self was judged by others in public. That must be the reason to why he hides his true intentions by ''wearing a mask''
3. The poem was written in rhymes and there was a repetition of ''we wear the mask'' which relates to the poem's meaning, to me, it almost seems as if the repetition is a representation of the cycle of having to put on our ''masks'' time after time.
4. The characters in lord of the flies seem to mask their identities and intentions. This was very similar to what was depicted in the poem.
-Elson