The Mask by Charlene Valladares - Analysis

I look in the mirror at the beginning of each day, and ask myself what mask should I place on my face today.

No not the sad one it's too revealing, I don't want to show the world my true feelings.

For the mask that you can see camouflages the true me. 
It's my public face that I remove each night, when I bare my soul the mirrors light.

It's the one meant for only my eyes to see it speaks of all my history.

It tells of my youth and girlish ways, my adolescents and my young womans dreams.

It tells of good times of which I had my share of love lost and pain so hard to bear.

So I choose my mask so carefully, to cover the face that was given to me, the one that was meant for only my eyes to see.

anaphora
metaphor


   The poem "The Mask" by Charlene Valladares uses anaphora and metaphors to represent a sad girl using a fake smile to hide her true feelings from the world. The "masks" she puts on are fake expressions, fake attitudes to convince everyone around her that she isn't suffering. In the third line, she doesn't want to put on her sad mask because she says "it's too revealing, I don't want to show the world my true feelings." She also says that the "mask that you can see camouflages the true me", meaning she hides her actual self from her friends and family. 
   The repeated use of the word "it" at the beginning of three lines emphasizes what the mask does for her, and how it hides her emotions from the people around her. She says that the mask is only meant for herself to see, which explicitly states that she is trying to fool everyone into looking at her mask, rather than her actual self. 
   When combined, the result displays a girl who is clearly suffering, but doesn't want to worry those around her, so she puts on a mask to hide the truth. She wants to hide her feelings from people, the ones that only she can see.