Masks

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 2011

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Skin and Identity

In the poem, skin symbolizes a person’s vulnerability, and it reveals something about their identity. The boy and girl each have blue skin, so they’re united. As skin color isn’t a choice, there’s nothing the characters can do about their skin color except try and conceal it. For reasons the poem never clarifies, the girl and boy keep their true skin color hidden. Their skin color represents loss and alienation. Since they masked the real color of their skin, they’re unable to find one another.

“Masks” is far from the only literary work where skin is critically symbolic. In Nella Larsen’s novel Passing (1929), Irene Redfield’s Black friend Clare Kendry conceals her true skin color and goes through much of her life as a white person. Kendry’s masking has fatal consequences for her. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970), a young Black girl named Pecola wishes she had white skin and blue eyes. In such a literary context, the blue skin in “Masks” symbolizes race or a marginalized and vulnerable identity. The boy and girl might have hidden their blue skin to avoid persecution or oppression.

Blue and Power

As with skin, the symbolism behind blue is strong but elusive. Blue might represent melancholy or uniqueness—or even some other distinct trait, possibly one that affords a degree of power. The two characters might conceal their skin color because they aren’t sure they could handle the trouble and power that came along with that special trait. Maybe if they found another person with a fierce skin color—i.e., the same unique qualities or abilities—they could learn how to utilize their power together. As both characters hide their skin color, such a situation doesn’t materialize.

The symbolic power of blue has deep roots within children’s poetry. The Mother Goose rhyme “Little Boy Blue“ (ca 1697) is about a boy who falls asleep under a haystack when he’s supposed to be looking after the sheep. In this poem, blue represents absence as well as deviance. Because the boy isn’t where he should be, he’s neglecting his role. The girl and boy aren’t failing to do their job, but, like “Little Boy Blue,” they struggle with prescribed roles.

Soulmates and Gender

The separated “she” and “he” produce the soulmates motif. It’s as if the girl and boy should be together. They each have blue skin. They are each other’s soulmates, but they can’t find one another because they’ve each chosen to hide the very characteristic they seek. While they may be soulmates, they won’t be together in this lifetime.

In literature, sometimes soulmates wind up together. In Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre (1847), the eponymous heroine, after a series of setbacks, winds up with her ostensible soulmate, Mr. Rochester. In Wuthering Heights (1847), a novel by Charlotte’s sister Emily, the soulmates can’t be together. Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw are torn apart (although, in a way, Catherine is with Heathcliff since her ghost torments him).

Read as a love poem, “Masks” says that not all soulmates can be together. The boy and the girl pass each other but never form a relationship or marry like Jane and Mr. Rochester. Like Heathcliff and Catherine, it’s not their destiny to spend their lives together in any sort of conventional way.

Although Silverstein’s “Masks” is presumably about a boy and a girl, the poem could use any gender pronouns, and the meaning wouldn’t change. A “she” could be looking for “they,” or a “he” could be looking for “he.” Soulmates and relationships (romantic or otherwise) can happen between people of diverse genders. Just as Silverstein didn’t hide truths in his books for children, many contemporary books intended for children speak to the fluidity of gender. Jessica Love’s book Julián Is a Mermaid (2018) and Daniel Haack’s story Prince & Knight (2019) are among several modern children’s books directly addressing the elasticity of gender.