Sherman Alexie’s “Facebook Sonnet” and Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” rondeau may hail from different ages of history, but they both admit a problem that is as relevant now as it was in 2011 or 1895; since time immemorial.
We humans do not like to let other people see the real us. We like to mask ourselves, whether online or in person, with some fake substance that we may even pretend is real. That fake substance may be a social media profile, as in the “Facebook Sonnet”, or a sort of screen donned in public to appease other people, as in Dunbar’s rondeau. How do these different poems expose the mask to reveal the real people behind it? What do the masks look like in Dunbar and Alexie’s poetry? Dunbar’s mask is a smiling, carefree person who struts proudly in public. This mask “grins and lies,” “hides our cheeks and shades our eyes." The mask endlessly smiles; always going on smiling, never showing any other emotion. Alexie’s mask is more intense in its perpetual aura of happiness; the person on Facebook plays around with “endless high school reunion” and generally looks happy in his or her vacation photos online. Both authors admit that an individual wearing a mask, online or in person, seems eternally blissful, displaying one jubilant emotion and always looking perfect. Both authors admit that this is a problem.
Why do we wear masks? Dunbar suggests that we wear them to try to placate or impress other people when we go out in public, potentially as a result of personal problems of which we prefer to be in denial. The mask may laugh and smile, but “with torn and bleeding hearts we smile." “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," exclaims Dunbar, as he posits that our personas are composed of a desire for freedom and protection from personal problems.
Alexie proposes slightly different motives for people’s Facebook personas: power and a desire for youth. “Let fame and shame intertwine,” he says of the Facebook mask. Everyone on the internet loves gossip when it affects someone else, but they surely do not want gossip about them because it would make them lose the fame — all the likes on their vacation photos and statuses — they had accumulated. Everyone on Facebook is on a conquest for likes, it seems. Alexie also points out people’s tendency on Facebook to reconnect with old friends and even exes. These reunited companions then go back to childhood and “play all the games that occupy the young." They may play around and share funny memes with each other or just joke around in general.
Alexie finds on Facebook a magic elixir, a fountain of youth, and a vehicle through which to assert power. Dunbar finds in a public persona a denial of personal problems and a desire for freedom. Both poets see masks as a product of “human guile." Both poets imply that masks are worn because of discontent in our lives.
Related: Thinking for Oneself: Schopenhauer on Reflection vs. Regurgitation
What is the message the poets are trying to send in communicating about these personal masks? Alexie may be condemning Facebook, but he sees that middle-aged humans really just want to be young again and feel some sort of control in their lives. He is not putting humans at fault for their desires, but does wish for more honesty when communicating online. Similarly, Dunbar does not put anyone at fault for denying things they may be ashamed of. Instead, he wishes that humans would not feel afraid to admit that something is wrong in their lives. Alexie and Dunbar want more dialogue instead of fear or arrogance when it comes to social interaction, online and in person.
Although Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” dates from 1895, it is still a relevant piece today. Alexie’s “Facebook Sonnet” was published eleven years ago, and it is definitely pertinent to our day and age of social media. Both poems discuss differing motives for putting on masks and different settings in which they may be worn, but they are still teaching a useful lesson to all of humanity. “Audience,” the authors must be thinking, “can you be more honest? Do you have to look so perfect or happy all the time? Why not show a few tears? It is okay to cry. It is not natural to perpetually be happy! Please, be honest about your real life. Your fictional life will catch up to you at some point or another, count on it.”
