The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden

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The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden The poem that I am going to talk about is the Unknown Citizen by W.H

Auden. I am going to talk about what I first glimpse in the poem but

then after further study what you actually see. At the start of the

poem under the title it has a serial number, also it shows that he is

getting a monument erected in honour of him. This already gives you an

expectation of him. An expectation that he has done something great in

his life.

When you look at the serial code at first you think that it is a

military code or something, you expect a tribute to be personal, not

to have a serial number but to have the persons name.

At the start of the poem it talks about "One against there was no

official complaint", You take this to be a good thing at first but

then after further analysis you start to see that the organisations in

the poem look for the worst parts of people, they describe the person

in the negative.

In this society before giving someone a compliment or a commendation

they check to see records, at first I just take it that they are

looking at records but after further analysis I find out that they

keep detailed records on everyone.

The great Community is vital in this society, it is what everyone

centres around, and he is being rewarded for serving the Great

Community. When I saw this at first I thought that he served the Great

Community by choice, but later on in this essay you will find about
...

... middle of paper ...

... in this society.

On the last line it talks about "If anything had been wrong, we should

certainly have heard" is yet again negative, the whole poem talks

about what he didn't do, not what he did do.

In conclusion in this poem we expected the Unknown Citizen to have

done something great but we learn nothing about him, we learn nothing

about his character because he probably didn't have any, he done

everything he was supposed to do. This society is a totalitarian

regime, the people are totally led and have no freedom of thought. You

reject the poem because you reject the society that he lives in; it is

boring to show what kind of society that he lives in. The poem is not

that far flung, as you would like it to be, for example in Russia and

China. In The Unknown Citizens Society his choices have been taking

away.

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