The unknown citizen by Auden
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The unknown citizen Story telling through poems is unique, but Auden’s work has proven to be extemporary. His poem “the unknown citizen” portrayed him as a hardliner on government’s standardization policies that lead to average citizens being identified by codes instead of their real names. This one is among the poems that are closely related to social revolutions. The poem is a good case study on the relationship between the artwork and the life of artist. Auden’s poem was written just after the First World War. The title is an assumed dedication to the soldiers who passed away in the war who could not be identified. The common practise was for government to mark their graves “unknown soldier”. The poem is a form of rights activism for government recognition. The author expects that the government has knowledge of all the soldiers who left the country for war and thus even though remains of the soldiers could be missing, at least their names should have been known. The character, who the poet calls an average person, is used as an imagery of the common citizens (Shmoop, 2010, 1). The poem has been able to stand the test of time. For example, the poem has been a case study on how twentieth century art has an effect on the twenty-first century human activities. Standardization and computerization of government agencies systems require input of data for members of the public, staff, suppliers and other stakeholders to be coded for easy referencing and navigation. While this is a laudable step in simplifying data management, Auden is worried that individuality of a man will soon be eroded and replaced by standardization. The poet uses a code “JS/07/M/378” for the unknown citizen (Shmoop, 2010, 1). This is a common practice in many government and private agencies, which would make violation of human rights and freedom easy since the touch of individuality will not be in place. Use of visa card, Identity cards, and staff cards are realisms of fears that the poet had premeditated. The poet opens the discussion for the audience on the benefits and set backs of standardization. The poet presents the poem as an epitaph, which is symbolic of death of the societal values. According to the poet, the average person does not exist to the government. In addition, the feelings of the average person are not a concern to the government. The poet, thus, says there is no need to interrogate the feelings of the character (Shmoop, 2010, 1). This is because; he never existed to the government at the first place. The grave of the unknown citizen is symbolic of the burial that took place. This is used by the poet to interrogate the intention of the government in having burials for persons they did not regard during lifetime. The poet criticises the ability of the standardized systems to understand the feelings of the citizens whether free, happy or otherwise. This validates his claims on non-existence of an average person to the government and government agencies. The satiric presentation of “the unknown citizen” points out to the government while it is also a good mirror for the society and the private organizations as well. This makes the poem to be easily related to life both at the time the poem was written as well as many years after (Shmoop, 2010, 1). For instance, the poem represents foreigners who find their way to America in search for freedom but later realise how capitalism and bureaucracy are not effective. Compared to maintenance of the status quo capitalism has enslaved many people. Individuals belonging to the working class are reduced to labourers who are not entitled to their own opinions. In the poem, the main character is portrayed to have held the right opinion for the year, which is a defensive method towards deportation or rejection. His possessions are the common assets that every other individual has such as a car and radio. He lacks unique material possessions, which lead to his unhappiness. Most of his time has been spent in search for approval rather than searching for personal solutions. The poem also finds its application today where individuals are indirectly influenced to support opinions in favour of two-party systems instead of being enlightened on the underlying politics in between thus denying them choice. Instead of the society being led by principles that advocate for human rights it is subjected to partisan principles. This trend is leading to a situation where everybody will be treated like a number thus losing identity (Shmoop, 2010, 1).