W.H. Auden reads 'The Unknown Citizen'

https://youtu.be/nf1klIiCdwQ

The Unknown Citizen  
was written in 1939, when Europe was in flames.It looked like a totalitarian system could prevail in Europe and take the place of democracy.

The Unknown Citizen is both satirical and disturbing. It was  written by Auden to highlight the role of the individual and the increasingly faceless bureaucracy that can arise in any country, with any type of government.

The unknown citizen is reduced to a mere number, a series of letters; there is no name, no birthplace or mention of loved ones.

From the beginning it is clear that the state is in total control. It has created a complete conformist, an ordinary man having a clean identity.

The state even calls him a saint, not because he was holy or he was particularly religious in his acts.

He was a good role model and he did everything that was expected by the government. He worked hard all his life and never did anyone complain about him. He satisfied his employers.He paid his Union dues.

He was married with five children. He bought a paper every day. His reactions to advertisements were normal in any way.He had all the necessary material goods to a modern man-a radio, a car, a fridge…but he never rebelled against the system, he never broke the rules. He served his country when there was war he never questioned the proper opinions. He had some mates and he liked having a drink with them. He never interfered with his children’s education.

He is a perfect citizen, a perfect conformist. He is the flawless result of a perfect system of propaganda, which takes away the citizen’s real control of his life. He has lost his critical thinking, his freedom of speech, so that an effective social unrest and protest is cut off and made impossible.

He is just a number and his process of dehumanization is complete. He didn’t have any original thoughts in his life, he just did whatever the government wanted, he had no real identity

Auden reminds us about the potential dangers in any system of government, in any bureaucracy anywhere, anytime - the individual can lose their unique identity, become a non-person, without a voice, without a say in how things are run.

At the end we have two rethorical questions, which are two examples of dramatic irony, For the speaker the answer is Yes, but for the reader the answer is No, of course.

No data or statistics about the man could have truthfully determined if his friends really cared about him or if he was really happy and free. He will die unremembered

The poem rhymes, but in a strange way.

Difficult words

 EUGENIST he is a scientist who works to improve society by manipulating the population

TO FUDGE present or deal with something in a vague or inadequate way, especially so as to conceal the truth or mislead(= evade, avoid)ex “The authorities have fudged the issue”

To FUDGE manipulate facts or figures so as to present a desidered picture  “ The company has been fudging figures to make it look as though targets have been met” (= falsify, fake, manipulate).