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Of Mice and Men Comparison

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Literally essay Of Mice and Men Comparison

The experience of the speaker in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is comparable to Crooks experience in chapter 4 of John Steinbach’s Of Mice and Men. The mask being figurative refers to the emotional mask that covers and conceals one emotion which many blacks wore while being segregated because they were afraid of what would happen if they showed their true feelings. Crooks had a similar experience in chapter 4 in Steinbeck’s book in which he backed down from an argument because he was afraid of the consequences that might fall on him because he was black. One of the lines from Dunbar’s poem shows how effective one could use the mask to hide their anguish and sadness. “We wear the mask that grins and lies- It hides our cheeks and shades our eye-“, the people in this poem used this “mask” to shade their eyes and cheeks which made other people incapable of seeing their true. This method of blocking true emotions is effective because often you can see the real feelings and emotions of a person by looking into their eyes and cheeks which are supposedly “gateways” to one’s true self. By putting on an emotionless and blank persona you can show no sign of you ever being tortured by the hateful words thrown at you. Likewise Crooks also has to deal with hurtful comments such as the N word yet he abides and remains throughout the rest of the chapter with a blank emotionless tone and voice. In chapter 4 page 81, Curley’s wife threatens crooks with various crude language and threats which quickly took out all the anger he had and replaced it with the mask. “Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego-nothing to arouse either to like or dislike. “This was not the same crooks before who a couple of lines before exploded with this” I had enough of this he said coldly. You got no rights messing around in a colored man’s room-.” This short moment of power was quickly knocked down by Curley’s wife, the intruder, who also exploded but with more revolting language and deadly threats. Crooks who knew the outcome of the event, quickly sulked down and gave Curley’s wife the upper hand and at the same time, putting on the figurative mask having nothing to him anymore. Not only can’t Crooks defend himself from abuse like this no one in that time gave a damn. It was looked hopeless to see a brighter future for Crook’s people.
Similarly, the poem proves a relevant point. In this part of the poem: “Why should the world be over-wise, in counting all our tears and sighs?” When they use the word counting, maybe they are actually referring to a statistical amount of people that are being tortured because of segregation. This line also suggests that the world thinks that segregation is at a minimum and everything is fine and dandy. Black people in that time were feeling real pain and it was the world’s duty to recognize that and put an end to it. Crooks also had to deal with these cruel acts. At one point in the book, candy, an old man, refers to crooks as the n*** who he and the rest of ranch workers invited for a drink and then beat the crap out of him with no remorse. The whole time candy was talking about I,t he was in the most casual state of mind for someone who beat a person just because of their race or color. Even the main characters didn’t seem to care and just shrugged it off. Crooks was treated like a wad of gum under the shoe and couldn’t do anything about it because of his color and the whole ranch pretty much ganged up on him.
So while Crooks is getting beat up because he looks different and has to hide his emotions because of it, the whole world still thinks the place they live in is perfect and that everyone is treated equal. Clearly Crooks is not and neither are the people in the poem are treated with slighted decency, the slighted shred of respect. All of it diminished because of their color.

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