We wear the mask that grins and lies illustrate

Analyze the question: The line "We wear the mask that grins and lies" is the opening of Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem We Wear the Mask. You are asked which literary device it illustrates.

Explain the concept:

• Irony: a contrast between what is said or appears and what is meant or true.
• Personification: giving human qualities or actions to non-human things or ideas.
• Synecdoche: a part standing for the whole (e.g., "all hands on deck").
• Alliteration: repetition of the same initial consonant sound in nearby words.

Step-by-step solution:

1. Look at the verbs: the mask "grins" and "lies." Grinning and lying are human actions, but a mask is an object.
2. Giving a lifeless object human actions is personification.
3. Check the others: • Synecdoche: the mask is not a part representing a whole. It is a metaphor for hiding true feelings. • Alliteration: "we wear" has a repeated "w" sound, but "wear the mask that grins and lies" is not built on repeated initial sounds. Alliteration is not the device the line mainly illustrates. • Irony: the poem as a whole has an ironic idea, since people smile while suffering. But this particular line works through the mask doing human things.

Answer: The mask is made to "grin" and "lie" like a person, so the device is personification, which is option B.

Tip: When an object, animal, or idea does something only a person can do (grin, lie, sing, weep), think personification right away. For poetry questions, always ask: "Who or what is doing the action, and can it really do that?"