What might Paul Laurence Dunbar mean in the following lines from his poem "We Wear the Mask"? We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. The African American community is pleased with its current situation in life and does not wish to change anything. Although they seem unhappy, the African American community is content with life in the United States. Although they smile outwardly, African Americans pray for an end to their community’s struggle. The African American community prays for others to go through the same struggles that its members have faced. The African American community wants the US government to compensate them for their suffering as slaves.

Respuesta :

The correct answer is Although they smile outwardly, African Americans pray for an end to their community’s struggle.

They pray to god, that is to Christ, for their suffering to end, but nobody sees this suffering that is in their cores because they wear fake smiles. They are the tortured souls that are suffering and they want to be saved by the person that they are praying to.

What Paul Laurence Dunbar means in the given lines from his poem is; Although they smile outwardly, African Americans pray for an end to their community’s struggle.

What is the meaning of the lines in the poem?

In the poem we see that they pray to Jesus Christ for their suffering to end. However, nobody can really tell how much they are suffering because they fake to be okay with fake smiles.

Finally since they are tortured but trying to create a perception of being happy, then we can say that what the author means in the given lines is that Although they smile outwardly, African Americans pray for an end to their community’s struggle.

Read more about meaning of poem lines at; https://brainly.com/question/15816956