Masks signify many various things to many people. They are being used at gatherings, ceremonies, rituals, activities, and so a great many other things. A lot of people eventually take masks off, disclosing who they really are. However, some people put masks on to conceal who they are really, shielding them from the globe. The poems The Emperor of Glaciers Cream by Wallace Stevens plus the Harlem Dancer by Claude McKay both show the theme of faade in several ways. The ladies depicted in the poems are very different, however they both felt as if they had a need to use a cover up to go on with their lives in population.
The Emperor of Ice Cream by Wallace Stevens portrays a woman who has passed on and the wake that is held for her. It is implied that she is nothing but one common woman who got no real accomplishments in her life. Her social status is disclosed in the next stanza:
Take from the dresser of package,
Lacking the three goblet knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And propagate it so as to cover her face
If her horny legs protrude, they come
To show how wintry she actually is, and dumb.
It can be realized from reading that her dresser is "lacking the three a glass knobs" that the dresser is old and perhaps falling aside, implying that this woman doesn't have the money to cover a new one. The sheet that was put over her body also came from atop of the dresser. She acquired also "embroidered fantails once. " When someone does not have a lot of money, it creates them thrifty. She must have embroidered the wild birds onto the sheet to make it look nicer. Making herself appear to have more wealth and status appears to be something she performed often. However, when her "horny legs" are exposed her masquerade has ended. Her callused foot reveal that she has possessed hardship and did a whole lot of effort in her life to just make it through. How big is the sheet that includes her is also very showing. The actual fact that the sheet was not large enough to repay her entire body reveals that she was not quite what she let people think she was. It really is as though the sheet covered the part of her that she confirmed to the world and in her passing uncovered the part of her that she actually was. Her fatality has finally unveiled that she was just a typical woman who attempted to make her life seem to be better by tweaking a couple of things to reside in her faade.
The first part of the poem is also very revealing about how the individuals who understood her perceive her now as she lays deceased in her bedroom.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are being used to wear, and let the boys
Bring bouquets in last month's papers.
Let be be the finale of seem.
The people that are participating in her wake seem to be dressed in regular clothing. They seem unbothered by the actual fact they are at a wake of a woman that they possibly know. These are "in such dress as they are being used to wear" which means that this event is not of major importance to them. The children also brought blossoms that are wrapped "in previous month's newspapers. " The girl wake had not been even important enough to allow them to wrap the plants in something nicer than "last month's newspaper publishers. " Both young girls and the males who attended her wake didn't think it was important enough to do anything special.
The most revealing type of the first stanza is, "Let be be the finale of seem. " The "finale of seem" symbolizes the finality of the mask of what the woman wanted people to understand when they looked at her. The series is saying that it's time to let land the cover up that the girl placed on for a big part of her life. This series alone sums the theme of faade in this poem. The faade that woman spent some time working so hard to keep up is lifted and even while she is useless, she is remaining pathetic and in her true form. People who recognized her used her fatality as an occasion to eat snow cream, to relieve some of their own troubles.
Another poem that explores the theme of faade is the poem The Harlem Dancer by Claude McKay. This poem is in the form of a sonnet, unlike the other poem that was free verse except a rhyming couplet at the end of each stanza. This poem catches what life was like for an DARK-COLORED woman during the 1920s. Being truly a woman in the 1920s was hard enough. When this poem was written women received the to vote two years prior, so tensions were still high. To add to the tension, an African American woman could have been given a harder time. Although no more slaves, the tension between whites and African People in america still been around and would persist before Civil Rights Motion. It is now time that Claude McKay lived in. McKay used his experience as a Harlem Renaissance article writer to depict what an BLACK woman during the 1920s may have done in order to manage.
The face mask that the woman wears in The Harlem Dancer is much unique of the mask the girl wears within the Emperor of Snow Cream. The cover up the girl uses in The Harlem Dancer is used to protect her and save what little dignity she's left.
Devoured her form with eager, keen gaze;
But considering her falsely-smiling face,
I realized her self was not in that weird place.
The female in this poem is not being herself as she dances for the individuals throwing money at her. She possessed used herself completely away mentally from the situation she is currently in and has put herself anywhere more comforting. She placed on a mask to protect herself, instead of aiming to make herself seem much better than she really is. She uses her cover up as a shield, making sure that no-one will ever be capable of geting to the shred of take great pride in and dignity in herself that she's left. It is obvious that this woman does not like dancing for the money for these people that treat her terribly and ridicule her. It can be said that this is mostly of the things that she actually is able to do to make ends meet. In order to support herself and perhaps others, this is just about the profession this is the most lucrative on her behalf during this time. The unfortunate part of the is that she actually is not even getting much money. This is disclosed in the collection, "Luxuriant dropped; and tossing cash in compliment. " She is merely earning petty coins and nothing of real value that may be of use to her.
Another part of the poem is also very sharing with about how exactly resilient this girl is due to how she sustains her faade.
She sang and danced on gracefully and quiet,
The light gauze dangling loose about her form;
To me she appeared a proudly-swaying palm
Grown lovelier for moving through a storm.
The woman seems to be weathered and in addition has gone through hardship much like the female in the first poem. She's been through things that have made her stronger in mind and body. It seems that because she's gone through such hardship, it has made her even more beautiful than she was. What has helped this girl become so strong and in a position to complete the a down economy is the fact that she can divide herself from the occupation that she's to do any her actual self. It really is akin to a victim of a murder or a rape that as it is happening, they prevent it away and put themselves somewhere else in their mind to allow them to get through the horrible experience. This female is placing her cover up on once more to complete her degrading job so she can support herself and perhaps others. Her durability gives way to the wish that she will be able to stop dancing and be successful.
The faade provided in the poem The Emperor of Snow Cream has more regarding concealing and concealing away what the girl actually was from the rest of the world. Her cover up was like a security blanket, making sure that no one would ever before see that she was just an ordinary woman with little or nothing to show of her lifestyle. However, the faade in the next poem The Harlem Dancer is more like a defense-mechanism. The girl in the next poem sets on the faade to safeguard her dignity and also to also transport herself away from the injury. This faade can be used as essential whereas the faade used in the first poem was a matter of pride for the woman. The women in both poems have observed many hardships and both struggle to survive in the world. They make an effort to better themselves hoping of living gladly. The woman in the first poem hoped that the cover up she put on would someday be who she really was. The woman in the next poem hoped that she would not have to wear a face mask any more. By utilizing a faade, both women hid their true selves from the world.
