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READ THIS
"Unknown Citizen" satirizes the modern day delight for using statistics, something now common
in every part of life.
The state takes a census every five years and then draws up tables to show what the average person
does, buys, how many children he/she has, what religion he/she belongs to, etc.
Social psychologists ask people questions and draw up statistics of the way in which people think.
Agencies working on behalf of producers interview people to draw up tables of what the average person
buys, wants, etc.
The poet asks the question: If someone could be found who fitted perfectly into the statistical average,
would not his or her life be dreadfully boring?
On the other hand, there is also the belief that modern society is becoming depersonalized. The state
knows nothing about its citizens as people.
A NOTE ON THE POET
Wystan Hugh Auden is regarded by many as the most influential poet of the 20th century, a man who
inspired other giants of the poetic world such as Cecil Day-Lewis, Louis MacNeice and Stephen Spender.
He was born in 1907 in York, the son of a medical practitioner and a university-educated mother. He
attended Oxford University where he graduated in 1928 with a lowly 3rd class degree in Literature.
While at Oxford, he became known for his poetry and his eccentricities and, most notably, for his series
of homosexual relationships.
Auden became a schoolmaster, which later allowed T.S. Eliot to criticise him for allowing his pedantic
teaching style to influence his poetry.
In 1935 he married Erika Mann, a German lesbian who needed to escape from Germany. The marriage
was one of convenience, designed purely to provide her with British citizenship.
During the 1930s Auden became captivated with left-wing politics and social causes, although he would
later tire of the contradictions inherent in this. Eventually he would claim that politics and art could never
be combined.
In January 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war, he sailed for New York. Because this was seen as
desertion from his homeland which was about to be embroiled in conflict, he lost much of his reputation
in England. As a result, he settled in the United States and eventually took out citizenship there.
While living in America, he established a permanent relationship with the 18 year old poet, Chester
Kallman, who would become his lifelong companion.
Auden would lecture literature at several universities, including Oxford where his tenure demanded that
he give only three lectures per year.
He would die in Vienna in 1973, shortly after delivering a guest lecture.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
Which of the following descriptions BEST characterises the Unknown Citizen? (1)
[Need help?]
The Unknown Citizen certainly does not represent every person in society. Neither does he represent
nobody and he is anything but heroic. Whom then does he represent?
Yes, indeed! He represents the average person, the theoretical person whom statistics creates. If one
asks 100 people what they think, and then take the average of that thought, that would represent the
opinion of the Unknown Citizen. And very boring he would be!
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Which of the following descriptions BEST sums up the character of the Unknown Citizen? (1)
[Need help?]
The Unknown Citizen is certainly no hero. Heroes are people who stand out in society. The Unknown
Citizen does not stand out!
He is also not the Great Loser. That's the whole point: the Unknown Citizen represents the average
person and, as such, cannot be a loser. If he was, then society would consist of losers.
This poem also does not deal with success. In fact, the Unknown Citizen is quite the opposite of a
successful person. According to the poet, successful people are no longer admired by society.
And so, yes, indeed! The poet paints a picture of Mr Average Citizen as being a totally spineless person
with no thoughts of his own, no determination, no characteristics that stand out in society and nothing that
could be called different in any way. Also totally boring and certainly not a person worth knowing!
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Monuments are usually built to honour great people, heroes, wise people, good people. Why do you think
the monument to the Unknown Citizen was built? (1)
- To congratulate successful people?
- To honour special people?
[Need help?]
The poet claims that modern society no longer honours winners nor successful people but rather admires
mediocrity. The Unknown Citizen is a conformist, a person who has no opinion of his own about anything.
The monument has therefore been built to praise a spineless person.
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"He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint."
- What does a Bureau of Statistics do? Does the poet like such an organisation? (4)
[Need help?]
Our modern society has a great love for statistics. How many people read this magazine? How many
drive this type of car? How many people have Grade 12 or a university degree? How many wear this
latest fashion?
Before these results can be released, the data has to be collected. Such an institution for collecting this
data would be called a Bureau of Statistics.
It would seem that the poet is very sceptical about such an organisation. The problem with statistics is
that they tend to control the way people think, what they do, what they buy. If most of our citizens buy this
product, then shouldn't you also be buying it? Which leads to a society of spineless people who can no
longer think for themselves.
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- What is the old-fashioned meaning of the word "saint"? What is the modern meaning of the
word? (4)
[Need help?]
In the old days, a saint was a holy person, a person known to do good works, a philanthropist, a person
like Mother Theresa of Calcutta. According to the poet, however, we now tend to think of saints as people
who are obedient to the state in everything they do.
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"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."
- Did the Unknown Citizen fight in the war? How do you know? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet says that the unknown citizen spent his entire life working at Fudge Motors except for the war.
The implication, therefore, is that he did join the war to fight for his country. Later in the poem we read,
"When there was war, he went".
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- Why does the poem use the word "Fudge Motors Inc." and not "Fudge Motors
Incorporated"? (4)
[Need help?]
What word in the poem rhymes with "Inc."? "Drink" But "drink" certainly does not
rhyme with "incorporated", does it?
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"Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues."
- What is meant by "his Union"? And what is a "scab"? (4)
[Need help?]
The "Union" is a Trade Union, isn't it?
When a Trade Union calls on its members to go on strike, they are expected to obey. If a member goes
to work despite his Union's call for a strike, then he is known as "a scab".
Union members hate scabs because they tend to reduce the impact of the strike. If sufficient workers
prove to be scabs, then production will continue and the firm can hold out against the strikers.
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"And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire."
- "Phonographs" are not very common today. What has replaced them? (2)
[Need help?]
A "phonograph" is described by the Oxford Dictionary as "an early form of gramophone using
cylinders". In other words, it was a record player.
Today we use stereo systems which play CDs -- or we download music onto I-Pods or mp3 players.
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"He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation."
- What is a "eugenist"? (2)
[Need help?]
The Oxford Dictionary defines eugenics as "the science of improving the population by controlled
breeding". The "eugenist" would therefore be a person who would control this, and would
therefore suggest how many children a family should be having.
How many children would a contemporary eugenist suggest? Well, it depends on the country. European
nations and the North American states are currently suggesting that two children is the norm. China, on
the other hand, is insisting that one child is quite enough. But this might all change quite soon.
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