Rantings of a Queer Pagan

English Journal Assignment 5

The poems “We Wear the Mask” and “The Secretary Chant” share a similar theme of objectification of a human. In “We Wear the Mask” the objectification is a little less obvious than “The Secretary Chant” but is no less persistent.

In “We Wear the Mask” the author talks about how he is treated as a lesser form by those that use him, but he refuses to give his users the satisfaction of showing his pain and suffering. The first time I read this I immediately thought it was about slavery, even prior to learning of the period and the race of the author.

“The Secretary Chant” on the other hand makes no bones about the objectification that is going on; in fact, the author goes so far as to take the theme to an extreme by composing the secretary out of a series of office supplies. This is a more blatant representation of objectification and slavery than the first but is more subtle in it’s anger over being treated this way.

posted by Kasper @ 15:35