Unknown Citizen Essay

of a state official praising a citizen who died. W. H. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” criticizes the government for not truly caring about its people. The government commends its citizens only when they do not interfere with the state’s agenda. In this poem, one specific man is what the state considers an ideal citizen, so they build a monument for him after he dies. The words of this poem are their tribute to this citizen for his respectable life. Their ideal citizen, though, is one who blindly follows

to access more information about their citizens. “The Unknown Citizen” tells a story of a citizen’s life to death through the eyes of the government. The government seeks to publicize their superiority so they may receive more fame and glory, but while doing so, they magnify their faults. In the poem, W. H. Auden uses formal word choice to create a serious tone with a sarcastic effect and irony through the lack of a rhyme scheme and knowledge about the citizen to illustrate how the government knows

Werner 05 March 2012 The Unknown Citizen By W. H. Auden Several conflicts are dramatized in The Unknown Citizen, the most prominent being: conformity of the middle class, government manipulation, and the loss of individualism to the standards of an average citizen. The speaker of this poem is non-traditional as the poem is, in fact, an inscription on a “marble monument erected by the State.” The inscription is dedicated to a “JS/07 M 378”—presumably, “The Unknown Citizen,” although this term only

Message Exchange Three Messages Citizen, Old, and Anyone Many may say that within every piece of literature, object, and spoken word there is a deeper meaning, or perhaps a hidden message. These hidden meanings are often hard to find and require more thought. In the three poems “The Unknown Citizen”,“Old Age Sticks” , and “Anyone lived in a Pretty How Town” there is a hidden meaning behind each word. Some could say that they all tie together

shapes their lives and leaves an impression on other people’s lives as well. Without these memories, their lives would have been meaningless. In W. H. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen,” it is evident that memories are important to really knowing a person. In the text, a eulogy is given by a government official for a citizen whose life is unknown. The official goes throughout the eulogy expressing how much the deceased was a “saint” by stating different facts from different government organizations about

“The Unknown Citizen,” written by W. H. Auden, is a poem that describes a man who lived a life most people would see as ideal. The man illustrated by this poem did what society expected him to do, which resulted in a model life. This poem, however, can be seen in more than one way. Some may see the story in the poem as a description of a man who had an unfulfilling life because he did exactly what was expected of him. Instead of trying something new, exploring the world, or making a change, the man

“The Unknown Citizen”      “The Unknown Citizen” by W.H. Auden, is a commentary on government and the materialism of modern man. The poem is written in the form of an obituary inscribed on a monument built by the government in commemoration of an average, upstanding, and decent community member. Throughout the passage, the speaker lists facts about the citizen’s life which he believes prove that the deceased was a valuable person. In actuality these facts represent nothing more than the socially

The Unknown Citizen consists of many different kinds of organizations and people that are weighing in and discussing the character of the poem our “citizen”. Our citizen had never received or made any official complaint against him or others according to the “Bureau of Statistics.” It was said that the man was a saint, whose good doings in life consisted of never getting fired and serving in the military. He had belonged to a Union, and paid his dues, he was also said to have of liked having a drink

the event that perhaps was the most substantial of them all: World War 2. As these events transpired, the face of America as a nation shifted in all arenas politically, economically and socially, garnering the attention of its citizens as well as the attention of citizens of other foreign countries. One of those individuals was renowned English poet, Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H Auden). Born in York, England in 1907, he moved to the United States in 1939

called “The Unknown Citizen”, written by W.H. Auden, expressed the idea that “scientific data fails to capture the human quality of life” and that “our lives are largely shaped and dictated” by a greater society leading to the loss of a meaningful life (“The Unknown” 301). Despite the difference in the plot of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen”,