Masks
“An Extravagance of Laughter" by Ralph Ellison exemplifies the trials and tribulations of a young black man struggling not only to be accepted by society but by himself as well. This essay is primarily concerned with questions of race and interaction between people of different races in different times and places. As Ellison travels from a community of apparent segregation (South) to the (North), he learns that distinctions between cultures are not as definite as they may seem. This idea of masking became a very important concept because of the transition between the north and south. There were a few examples in the story were people were hiding behind masks to either fit in, as well as people who did not hide behind the masks.
Taunted by humiliation from releasing emotional laughter Ralph Ellison arrives at the finale of his essay in disbelief. He probably hadn't counted on one scene in a play changing his perspective of life. This scene enabled him to reach the conclusion of his exploration. He realized that the absurdity of human nature is all common. Everyone is just at least a little bit the same. Ellison battled with the concept of "masking" throughout the essay. Masking can best be defined as changing one's perspective from the inside out. Or as W. B. Yeats puts it so eloquently in the essay, "active virtue, as distinct from the passive acceptance of a current code, is the wearing of a mask" (268). The person wearing the mask is no longer a part of the original community nor are they a part of the new one. They are caught in a "purgatory" of their own mind. Ellison credits his "decision" to be masked in order to "confront its mysteries (New York) with a combination of uncertainty and daring". Even though he is actually hiding from his true self. His desperate need to fit in leads him to believe that his masking will help him to appear like a "New Yorker"; but it doesn't. Ellison is caught between trying to survive as both an African-American and an American.
Ellison toils between trying to escape the ridicule he received because of his race and trying to hide behind it. "Which is to say that in many instances I found my air and attitude could offset the inescapable fact of my color" (268). The reality of it all was that nothing offset his color. No matter which way he looked at it there was some aspect of his race that was holding him back. He felt that he was accepted when wearing his mask, but from the outside looking in, Ellison was trying to modify whom he really was just to fit into his new version of society.
The first example is when he was when he was on the bus and became preoccupied with trying to figure out the differences between both the northern and southern buses. “A southern bus was a…social pyramid on its side, knocking out a few strategic holes, and rendering it vehicular through the addition of engine, windows, and wheels…a ride in such a vehicle became at least for Negros, as unpredictable as a trip in a spaceship doomed”( page 262,263). In the north there was “racially uncharted areas” (page 265). He was unused to being able to sit anywhere on the bus he wanted. As he tried out each seat, he realized that he liked sitting in the back the most because you are looking upon everyone rather than being looked upon. But he felt as though he must sit closer to the front of the bus or he would be different, so he out on a mask and went with what he was less comfortable with to be able to fit in.
One more example is an African American whose last name is Whyte refuses to give in to hiding behind a mask and lie about his last name. Two white police officers beat him severely because he told them his last name was white. It seems that they felt as though if they beat him enough he would deny his identity. And if he denied his identity he would have gotten beat anyways. If you’re going to get punished either way you’re mid as well stick to your morals and not give up.
These two stories are different one man hides behind a mask and the other stays his true self and in the end the one who stays his true self is happier, no matter how bad something gets he stayed true. On the other hand the other man can’t be satisfied with his life because its not really his life it’s his second self.

If you except the mask you’re given you’re letting other people define who you are. In a few cases Ellison hid behind a mask so he would fit into this new area. He did it to “discover the dimensions and cost of northern freedom” (page 269).