The perfect mask: examining the diligence in masking in Daniel black's perfect peace and Obery Hendricks's living water

• Main Author: Wilson, Lakeitha Shana
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center 2011
• Subjects: English Language and Literature
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/236; http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1781&context=dissertations

This thesis examines the efforts necessary to mask and the aftermath in doing so as illustrated in Daniel Black’s Perfect Peace and Obery Hendricks’s Living Water. The focus of this study is to explore how Black and Hendricks demonstration of Dunbar’s concept of masking evolves from societal oppression. The environment and social constructions within the two novels centralizes the cause to wear the mask. The female characters discussed in this paper tacitly agree with their oppressors to at least pretend to submit to their own oppression. Black and Hendricks develop female characters that emerge from their oppression and achieve self-assertion. The female characters redefine and redeem themselves through unconventional concepts of heroism.