Question

Comment on the title of the poem 'the unknown citizen '

Answer 1

Answer:

• The Unknown Citizen” by W.H. Auden describes, through the form of a dystopian report, the life of an unknown man.

• By describing the "average citizen" through the eyes of various government organizations, the poem criticizes standardization and the modern state's relationship with its citizens. The last lines of the poem dismiss the questions of whether he was "free" or "happy", implicitly because the 'statistical method' strategy used by the state to judge his life cannot understand such questions.

• According to Shmoop, The manipulative "State" in Auden's poem celebrates "The Unknown Citizen" as the ideal citizen.

• The epigraph to "The Unknown Citizen" is a parody of the symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier commemorating unidentified soldiers; tombs of unknown soldiers were first created following the first World War.

• It is not just government organizations that Auden criticizes. His employer is "satisfied", his union "reports he paid his dues", his mates are found to like him, and the press are pleased with his buying papers daily and responding to the ads. The industry poll takers are happy with his buying habits, and teachers are glad he stayed out of their way. In Auden's poem, the entire system and society are responsible for the loss of individualism, whether or not government was the initial cause of the decline.