Day of Tears, written by Julius Lester in 2005, conveys how concealing one’s identity behind masks is harmful to people. Masks affect everyone, even the ones who are using them. It can affect trust between relationships, block one from realizing one’s faults, and even worse, make one repeat the wrong choices. However, the author also communicates how masking oneself is necessary for specific individuals despite adverse consequences. For a person dealing with life-altering issues, it is necessary to use the mask in order to hold one’s emotions in because it will be impossible to bear if they pour out. Also, there are situations where one has to cover one’s feelings to survive as the lowest in social status and to hide the fact that they know more about their social superior than they know about them. Nevertheless, as said before, masks always have consequences, and the people will not be able to hide their authentic selves behind the masks forever; the self will out. In Day of Tears, this theme is dramatized equally in the struggles of a slave owner, Pierce Butler, and those of his slave, Emma.
For Pierce Butler, masking brings devastating effects. On the Butler plantation live enslaved families and their master, Pierce. The Butler plantation is relatively stable with Pierce growing up side by side with slaves as almost siblings. Years later, the plantation starts crumbling down; Pierce’s wife leaves him, and he becomes wasted in gambling. Pierce sells off his slaves one by one, and ultimately, sells away Emma, the daughter of his closest “brother.” Pierce lies to everyone, and everyone –including himself– knows that he is running away from his problems. He justifies his actions in order to maintain relationships, but mostly for himself because he is not sure about his actions. From the start, Pierce uses masks to continually remind himself how he is doing the right thing. He never confronts his faults, he uses the mask more and more desperately, and consequently, he makes an irreversible and unforgivable mistake. After he sells away Emma and faces her mom Mattie, who has been his life-long friend, he fumbles,” Mattie? I—I don’t quite know how to say. I don’t know what got into me…. Mattie, I know how it seems, but you have to understand—” Mattie replies, “…I hope you burn in hell!… That’s right, Master. Run away!” Even Mattie loses her trust in him and rejects him. In the end, he has no one near him. As an old man, Pierce thinks to himself about his dear daughter, ”And then there’s Sarah…. But she’s never forgiven me…. I’ve told her countless times how sorry I was, that I wish things could’ve been different, that I care about my slaves more than she thinks I did. But regardless of what I say, nothing changes her feelings towards me.” Butler knows that his true self has been revealed. When he asks Sarah if she loves him, his vulnerability reveals that he wants forgiveness for what he knows he did wrong. However, he keeps deceiving himself because he cannot own his mistakes in life. He does not reflect on himself and at this point, does not know what would salvage even a little of his damaged relationships. He is so scared to let reality rush in that he cannot remove his mask.
For Emma, masking was essential to her life. Masking helps her conceal her true self and restrain her intense and vulnerable emotions from the white masters who would take advantage of them. However, her masks have consequences for everyone. When she gets sold and realizes that she will never be able to see Sarah and the rest of her family again, she assures Sarah that “everything will be all right,” but the stage directions tell us that she is “…blinking her eyes rapidly to hold back her own tears.“ She is on the verge of crying and revealing her weakness in public. Masks cannot hide anyone’s feelings forever because they are not the solution to the core problem. She is desperate to hide her emotions from her past and present masters: “(Her eyes are down. She does not want anyone to see her face. Not yet. Not yet. Not until her face is as plain as a board. Not until she looks like she is not here.) Yes, ma’am.” At this moment, all she can feel is mixed feelings of sorrow and hatred towards the master who bought her from Pierce Butler. She hides this tremendous emotion because she doesn’t want to give them away to him. She wants to stay strong; if she lets it all out, it would make her vulnerable in front of him and give him more power over her than he already has, because he could reprimand her. In this bind, Emma is like most slaves living with their masters. They hide their vulnerability and tears to resist their masters’ manipulations. Unlike Pierce Butler, masking is a necessary tool for Emma and people who are trying to survive as the oppressed. She doesn’t slip into self-denial the way Pierce does when he uses his mask. Her life, ultimately, is happier than his, and this has to do with her ability to face the loss she’s dealt as much as it does the outside circumstances of her life, which is connected to how she uses masks. Nonetheless, the mask is not the primary solution that can fix the injustice slaves face. In conclusion, masks can be used for different purposes, but they all have negative consequences. Pierce and his kind use them to run away from their problems and cover their emotions. Moreover, they find it hard to stop using it once they start because it is the easiest way to ignore a problem temporarily. The consequences can be especially harmful to them if they become their own mask and flee from real solutions. However, in exceptional cases like Emma’s, masks can be the best solution for people with no power. Either way, in Day of Tears, masks cannot be a permanent solution.
