Do you ever feel like you are the same as everyone in a country this is supposed to be diverse? "The Unknown Citizen," written by W.H Auden in 1940, is a satiric poem about society and conformity. The unknown citizen is an average citizen. On the surface, the poem is about a monument commending a citizen for the things he has done. In a deeper look of the poem, the author is satirizing the government and its treatment of the people. W. H. uses symbolism, irony, tone, and diction to convey the themes of conformity of individuals in a society and the threat of government control.
"The Unknown Citizen" is filled with many symbols that help create the themes of conformity and the threat of government control. One of the major symbols that help to develop the themes is the unknown citizen whom the government is commending. The unknown citizen symbolizes all the average people in a society and how the government wants the people to live. The unknown citizen also shows how the government treats average people as a number, and not a name. Two symbols that also represent the realization that government treats people as statistics and numbers instead of names are the title of the poem and the monument being dedicated to the citizen. These symbols are representative of the monuments dedicated to soldiers who have been killed in war and cannot be identified. Literary critic, Carol Pippen states: "The title of the poem itself, 'The Unknown Citizen,' reminds the reader of the unknown soldiers who followed their countries' calls, who gave their lives in defense of their countries, who died to ensure the continuity of the society for which they fought, and who stood for the bravery of all soldiers. They are honored for their deeds; only their deeds, not their names, remain as silent witness that they lived. The 'Unknown Citizen,' though not a warrior, also represents the life his society values and records in his 'metaphorical' Bureau of Statistics files, files that hold facts but tell only a partial story, leaving much else in silence" (1).
