THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN
(TO JS/07/M/378*. THIS MARBEL MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY THE STATE)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaints,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired**,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on this Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper everyday
And his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows that he was once in hospital but left it fully cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man.
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinions are content
That he had the proper opinion for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenists^ say was the right number for a parent of his generation,
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education,
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
Note:
*The citizen has been called merely by this number which shows his insignificant, mechanical survival in modern society.
**was never terminated
^The experts in family-planning are called Eugenists.
What I Feel:
Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973), was the leader of a group of poets with strong Socialist leanings who came into prominence in the 1930s. His poems explore a variety of new and provocative ways of illustrating the futility of modern English middle-class existence. He assaults their prejudices and conformities with a rhetorical gaiety and a wit which often hovers on the brink of satire. The poem ‘The Unknown Citizen’, which has a strong Marxist base, brings out the theme of mechanical existence of modern man in society without any freedom, happiness or chance to prove himself. The unknown citizen only aimed at conforming to the accepted norms of society and never thought of stepping outside the familiar realms. Whatever he did in this life, he served the 'Greater Community'. Through a deceptively simple style, Auden blows a lash of spite against the modern State which denies every freedom of its citizens, and even suppresses one's individual voice by providing him only a number to be identified.
