Comment on masks

Masks serve as a motif throughout The Swans of Fifth Avenue and as a means for the characters in the novel to hide their true selves. All of the characters in the book wear masks—at most times figuratively and, during the Masked Ball, literally. The Swans all wore emotional masks to conceal their loveless marriages and their insecurities. Babe also wore a mask of makeup to hide her scars. Truman used flattery to mask his true intentions. Bill used financial and social power to mask his own painful insecurity regarding his modest background, as well as his Jewishness.