Unknown Citizen Essay

The Unknown Citizen, is about an overly controlling government that regulates every aspect of a citizen’s lives. Each of the branches of this government declared this unknown man was a hard worker, nice, and served the greater community because he was part of a whole and had lost his individuality. Much as in The Unknown Citizen, society is leaning towards a too strong government. The main ideas of this poem reflect a very real society that is filled with complacent and controlled citizens through

those who actually never do anything. However, the "Unknown Citizen" has a monument built as a symbol of his perfection. Thus, Auden's "The Unknown Citizen" shows how the government makes each individual merely a number unless they do not conform to society's norms. The monument of the "unknown citizen" is erected not to honor the memory of a man, but to show how he is the perfect example of a good citizen (Auden). In this poem, the citizen is just an average person who never stands out among

to them without any complaints. Each of the three literary writings has a character that is considered rebellious within the norms of society. A rebellious person is someone who does not follow the rules that are given to them. The poem “The Unknown Citizen” by W. H. Auden is mainly about an unnamed man who is a conformist, because he listens to all the rules that are made for the society. On the other hand, the short story “A & P” by John Updike and the play “Antigone” by Sophocles there is a conformist

as symbolic characters, symbolism, and irony, to simplify the understanding of who this “satirical target” is. In “The Unknown Citizen” by W. H. Auden and James Michie’s “Dooley Is a Traitor,” symbolic characters, symbolism, and irony are all used to indirectly criticize the target of each satirical work. In “The Unknown Citizen,” Auden is criticizing the way average citizens live their daily life. In this satire, JS/07/M/378 is dead and is being praised by the state in a eulogy. In a typical eulogy

Social Irresponsibility: “The World Is Too Much With Us / The Unknown Citizen” This is a critical analysis of two poems – The world is too much with us by William Wordsworth, and The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden focusing on how the two poems highlight the mundane drudgery of life. It is a drudgery, and one that people do not even recognize because they are consumed in leading materialistic ways of life, conforming to the state and the society or both. The text proceeds from analyzing each poem

In the three literary works that were chosen, “The Known Citizen” by W. H. Auden, “A & P” by John Updike, and “Antigone” by Sophocles has a theme that is known to be conformity and rebellious. The poem “The Unknown Citizen” is mainly about the unknown man who is a conformist because he listens to all the rules that are made for the society. On the other hand, the short story “A & P” has a conformist character who enforces the rules for the supermarket and a rebellious character who goes against the

also involved with different Christian beliefs. One of his greatest poems would have to be “The Unknown Citizen” which was written in 1939. He wrote this poem shortly after he moved to the United States. “The Unknown Citizen” is mainly a satiric poem. The author of the poem uses satire in the poem by the theme of conformity, submissiveness, and propaganda. W.H. Auden shows satire in “The Unknown Citizen” by the theme of conformity. According to the dictionary, conformity is “obedience and compliancy”

Analysis of The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden “The Unknown Citizen”, written by W.H. Auden during 1940, is a poem where the speaker, a representative of the state or government, directs a speech to the audience about a monument being erected for a citizen. Written in free verse, although using many couplets, this poem is a poem that describes the life of a certain person through his records and documents. This citizen is portrayed as a normal and average human being who is being honoured

Symbolism is used to define the conflicts within “The Flea” by John Donne and “The Unknown Citizen” by W.H Auden by having a significant object, which is a flea and a monument, which represent a conflict that is portrayed throughout the poem. The flea represents three different arguments that are introduced in each stanza based on sex and the morals behind it. The monument in the “Unknown Citizen”, symbolizes the model citizen only based on statistics and not the true identity of the human such as their

by Edwin Arlington Robinson and “The Unknown Citizen,” by W. H. Auden, deal with identity through irony, point of view, and characterization, but they do so in different ways. Both poems have a similar ironic outcome, which plays a huge role in comparison. In “The Unknown Citizen,” the man who had “everything necessary,” was tired of being a slave to routine and had a similar outcome to that of “Richard Cory,” which was death. The speaker of “The Unknown Citizen,” failed to see their true feelings