UNKNOWN CITIZEN- BASIC ENGLISH NOTES - SEMESTER I - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 

UNKNOWN CITIZEN

Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.

1) Why is the unknown citizen unknown?

Ans: "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.

 

2) What is the number given to unknown citizen?

Ans: the number, “JS/07/M/378.” This number is much like a social security number.

 

3) How does the state identify the unknown citizen?

Ans: the citizen is identified by his social identification, the number, “JS/07/M/378.” This number is much like a social security number. It leads investigators to various data banks that provide details regarding the citizen's life, and this is the irony upon which the poem turns.

 

4) Is unknown citizen free and happy?

Ans: The citizen in "The Unknown Citizen" was neither happy nor free. Had the unknown citizen been either of these things during his lifetime then the government would've known about it.

 

5) What is the theme of the “Unknown Citizen”?

Ans: unknown citizen is a model of conformity in a society where everyone must follow the rules if things are to run smoothly.

 

6) How does the epitaph help to introduce the theme of the poem?

Ans: The poem is a satirical eulogy of a citizen who is praised because of his mediocrity and his compliance. In his life, he had done what was expected of him; he made no waves, ruffled no feathers, and rocked no boats. Based on the title, the reader can already assume that the poem is going to be negative toward the government's view of citizens.

 

7) On what basis unknown citizen was popular?

Ans: he was popular with his mates and liked a drink. The Press is convinced that he bought a paper every day. And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.

 

8) How many children unknown citizen has?

Ans: Unknown citizen has five children.

 

9) What is the irony in the poem “Unknown Citizen”?

Ans: The Tone of Irony in the Unknown Citizen. “The Unknown Citizen,” a poem written by W.H. Auden, alludes to a time of great change in American history, where the poem is meant to mock the government's viewpoint of the perfect role model for an unrealistic, impractical citizen.

 

10) What does the title of the poem “Unknown Citizen’ signify?

Ans: Unknown Citizen is a satire on modern governance system. It is satire on the way in which the average man in the street is controlled by the conventions of bureaucracy and the welfare state.

 

11) What according to Auden does the word “Saint” mean in the modern age?

Ans: Saint in the modern age means any man who is subservient to the wishes and aspirations of the government.

 

12) Where was the unknown citizen working?

Ans: The unknown citizen was working in Fudge Motors Inc.

 

13) What did the social psychology workers find about the unknown citizen?

Ans: Social Psychology workers found that he was popular with his mates and like a drink.

 

14) What did the press say about the unknown citizen?

Ans: The press said that they were convinced that he bought a paper every day and that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.

 

15) What did the health card of the unknown citizen show?

Ans: The health card of the unknown citizen showed that he was once in hospital but left it cured.

 

16) What did the Eugenist say about the unknown citizen?

Ans: Eugenist said that he had contributed the right number for a parent of his generation.

 

17) What did the teachers say about the unknown citizen as a parent?

Ans: The teachers said that he never interfered with their education.

 

18) Who is being attacked in this satire?

Ans: Modern Governance is being attacked in this satire.

 

Explain the following statements with reference to their context.

1)  He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be.

One against whom there was no official complaint.

Ans:  According to the Bureau of Statistics, the unknown citizen was a model worker who served the greater community well. The poem begins by describing a person referred to as, simply, "He." We take this to be "The Unknown Citizen," which makes sense, because his name isn’t known. For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to refer to him as "The UC." The Bureau of Statistics has found that "no official complaint" has been made against our guy, the UC. Now, this is a strange way to start a poem of celebration. It’s a total backhanded compliment. It’s like if you asked someone what they thought of your new haircut, and they replied, "Well, it’s not hideous." Um, thanks…? But here’s a question: what on earth is the Bureau of Statistics, and why is it investigating the UC? There isn’t any Bureau of Statistics in any country that we know of, but most "bureaus," or government offices, deal with statistics every day. The Bureau of Statistics seems to be a parody of such "bureaucracies," which are large, complicated organizations that produce a lot of red tape and official paperwork. If the Bureau of Statistics has information about the UC, then it probably has information about everyone, because, in a certain sense, the UC represents everyone. He’s the average Joe. The fact that there was no "official" complaint against the UC doesn’t tell us much. Were there "unofficial" complaints? We don’t know, and from the poem’s perspective, it doesn’t seem to matter. Auden subtly pushes back on the anonymity of the UC in one interesting way, however. The first word of the second line is "One," which produces a minor joke if you stop reading there: The UC was found to be…One, as in he was found to be a single person: an individual. This is funny, because an individual is exactly what the idea of an "Unknown Citizen" is not.

 

2) That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,

Ans: Get out your highlighters and reading glasses: we’re still poring through the paperwork of the lovable Bureau of Statistics. Now we have in front of us the "reports on his conduct." Let’s see: ah, yes, it appears the man was a saint. But not a saint like St. Francis or Mother Teresa: those are "old-fashioned" saints, who performed miracles and helped feed the hungry and clothe the poor. No, the UC is a "modern" saint, which means that he always served the "Greater Community." This community could include the poor and the hungry, but somehow we think that’s not what the speaker has in mind. And the words "Greater Community" are capitalized as if it were a proper name, though it’s not. As in the first two lines, these lines raise more questions than they answer. Who issued these "reports"? His friends? Lovers? Co-workers? Some guy in an office somewhere? We don’t have an answer.

  

3) That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink,

Ans:  Now the poem shifts from his employment to his social life. But, don’t worry: there are still comically absurd bureaucrats to provide us with unnecessary information. Stop the presses! Headline: "Average Joe Enjoys Drinking With Pals." Even in his carousing with friends, though, the UC takes things in moderation. He likes "a drink," and the singular form implies that he doesn’t drink too much and isn’t an alcoholic. At the time when Auden wrote the poem, "Social Psychology" was still a relatively new field. Social psychologists study the behavior of humans in groups. This sounds good in concept, but in practice, a lot of the early work done in this field simply pointed out things that were so obvious they didn’t need to be pointed out. (Don’t worry, psychology majors, the field has gotten quite a bit more complicated since then.) It’s like when you read about some scientific study that says that unhappy people are more likely to drink a lot, and you wonder why on earth they needed a study to support such an obvious conclusion. Nonetheless, we have to think that the UC might have been flattered to be getting so much attention from all these intellectual types. That is, if he were still alive.

 

4) The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day.

Ans: This is starting to sound like an infomercial you might see for some exercise machine on cable at 3 a.m. There are testimonials galore. Now "The Press," or news media, offers its take. Of course, they don’t really care about the UC as a person; they’re just glad he seems to have bought a paper every day. Or, rather, they are "convinced" that he did. We’d like to know what convinced them. Not only that, but he also had "normal" reactions to the advertisements in a paper. ("Hey! An inflatable kayak! I sure could use one of those…") In short, he’s a good American consumer.

 

5) Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured.

Ans: We’re starting to suspect that the government must have an entire room full of paperwork on this guy. Now we are rifling through his health insurance policy, looking for any evidence that he wasn’t a totally straightedge, middle-of-the-road personality. He was "fully insured," which is sensible. This guy wasn’t exactly a risk-taker. Even though he had insurance, he only went to the hospital once, which means he wasn’t too much of a burden on the health system. He left the hospital "cured".

 

6) That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;

When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.

Ans: The "researchers into Public Opinion" are like the people nowadays who call your house during dinnertime to ask you who you’re voting for and whether your jeans are stone-washed or boot-cut. The UC didn’t have any weird or "improper" opinions. He was a conformist, which means that he believed what the people around him seemed to believe. He was like a weather vane, going whichever way the wind blew. Indeed, the UC’s beliefs were partly determined by the seasons or "time of year." Line 24 is also pretty funny. We imagine a pause for comic suspense after word "war." "When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war…(pause)…he went." The line leads us to expect that it will end "he was for war," but we actually get something much more hesitant. Because, really, who could be "for war"?

 

7) Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

Ans: The poem ends on a final, rhyming couplet that takes a big detour from the conventional topics that have occupied the speaker so far. Now he asks two questions – "Was he free? Was he happy?" – that really do seem interesting. These questions are not interesting to the speaker, though, who calls it "absurd." It’s interesting that these two questions are referred to in the singular, as "the question," as if being free and being happy were the same thing. In the final line, the speaker explains why the question is absurd: if things had been going badly for the UC, the State ("we") would have known about it, seeing as they know everything. The speaker’s confidence in this line – "we certainly should have" – is downright chilling. But, of course, the big joke here is that the speaker defines happiness in the negative, as things not going wrong, instead of as things going right. From the perspective of the State, it is much more important that people are not desperately unhappy – so they don’t rock the boat and stop buying things – than it is that they experience personal fulfillment.

 

Answer the following questions in 300 words.

1) What does the poet want to convey about the modern society through the poem?

Ans: The poet is sending out a warning in many ways. The anonymous nature of the unknown citizen is a comment on governments encouraging communalism versus freedom through the poem “The Unknown Citizen,” Auden wants to convey the idea that modern society is overly regimented and controlled by the state. As a result, people have become dehumanized, treated as nothing more than cogs in a gigantic machine. The poem critiques the way modern society instrumentalists’ human beings. To instrumentalist a person is to use them merely to extract as much value or profit from them as possible. It is considered unethical, for instance, to have a second child so that that child's bone marrow can be extracted to treat an illness in the first child. A person should not be birthed simply to be used. In this poem, however, the state finds in the unknown citizen the model citizen because he is utterly instrumental. He completely conforms and does everything he is supposed to do, without deviation. He comes to work regularly and without complaint, so society is able to extract maximum value from his labor. He also does exactly what he is supposed to do with his leisure time: he was "popular with his mates and liked a drink." In other words, he doesn't do anything to create headaches or require the state to expend extra resources "fixing" him. In fact, by drinking, he drowns any disquiet he might feel. He also does his part in having a family to provide more instruments for the state to use: in fact, he has five children. Finally, not only does he work efficiently, he also consumes, keeping the machinery of capitalism profitable. His lack of a name symbolizes that he is valuable to the state only for what he does for it, not for himself as a unique being. Auden ends the poem by asking the more abstract question of whether such an individual is free or happy and having the state dismiss such musings as "absurd." Auden wants to convey that it is dehumanizing for people to be treated as if they are little more than machines to be programmed and worked until they wear out.

 

2) Give a critical appreciation of the poem “Unknown Citizen”.

Ans: W. H. Auden, an English author, wrote this poem while living in the United States.  “The Unknown Citizen” is a satirical poem based on the very serious military Unknown Soldier which is a tribute to those soldiers who died fighting for their country could not be identified.  The title establishes the subject of the poem but  is never mentioned again. The poem is supposedly written on a statue somewhere built by the state. The poem is intended to show a humorous approach to the modern world of 1938 which takes itself too seriously. Narration The point of view is third person with the narrator including himself in the poem by using some first person pronouns: our Eugenist; our teachers. The speaker is someone who works for a fictional government who makes decisions that impact lives that he has never or will never meet.  The poem uses few literary devices other than it is a parody for the pretense of celebrating a life of a man that does not exist.  It does rhyme with the rhyme scheme varying throughout the poem.  The only metaphor that is obvious is the unknown citizen compared to a saint. Called a modern saint, it is apparent that this is a facetious statement since he appears to be just an ordinary man. Ironically like the Big Brother concept, the poem predicts or even warns about the future that could have many organizations that watch over and check on citizens.  The unknown citizen is declared a saint because of his behavior and lack of breaking the rules. Part of the poem’s irony comes from the list of accomplishments of the citizen which are not really achievements at all.  They are an ordinary life.   The statue that supposedly built really celebrates the ordinary man who does not want to cause any problems and follows the accepted pattern for a man's life.  The poet really does not want man to be like the unknown citizen but more independent and creative.

3) What are the views of the narrator on the bureaucracy and welfare state?

Ans: The Unknown Citizen is a poem that Auden wrote at a turning point in his life, when he left England for the USA and left behind the idea that his poetry could make anything happen in the world. The year was 1939, Hitler had plunged Europe into darkness and the young Auden was horrified. But he had already done his bit for the cause, having married Erika Mann, the daughter of famous writer Thomas Mann, to help save her from the brutality of the Nazis. His move to America helped broaden his artistic output. He began to concentrate on religion and relationships in his poetry, as opposed to left-wing politics, and he also ventured into writing drama and libretti. Auden was a gifted craftsman as a poet, writing long, technically astute poems but he also embraced the move towards free verse, combining both modern and traditional elements. The human condition was his main focus, but he did say that: The Unknown Citizen is both satirical and disturbing, 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, be it left-wing or right-wing. The tone of the poem is impersonal and clinical, the speaker more than likely a suited bureaucrat expressing the detached view of the state. The unknown citizen is reduced to a mere number, a series of letters; there is no name, no birthplace or mention of loved ones. It is clear from the first five lines that the state is in total control and has planned and structured this individual's life in order to create a complete conformist, someone who has a clean identity, who serves the greater good.

The state even calls him a 'saint', because he kept to the straight and narrow and was a good role model, not because he was holy or carried out religious acts. He maintained the standards expected of him by those in power. He worked hard, was part of the union but never strayed or broke the rules. Only the war interrupted his working life which made him a popular member of the workforce. There is mention of the Social Psychology department, part of the state who no doubt investigated his background when he died, and found all was normal according to his mates. He bought a newspaper each day, that is, he read the propaganda dished out by the bias press, and had no adverse reaction to the advertisements in that paper. There is some sound corporate brain-washing going on here and this citizen has one of the cleanest in the Greater Community. He's not a critical thinker but a solid type of guy who you would want living next door. He keeps up with his household goods, he adheres to all societal rules. This man is averages Joe, a perfect citizen who is conditioned to routine and will never question the settled life, unless the state calls on him for purposes of war. This citizen is treated like a little boy himself, patted on the head for being a good if unquestioning person. But note that the speaker mentions the Eugenist - a person who investigates eugenics, the genetic makeup of this man's family - and coldly says that his 5 children was the 'right number' for his generation.

 

4) Explain the irony presented in the poem “Unknown Citizen”.

Ans: “The Unknown Citizen,” a poem written by W.H. Auden, alludes to a time of great change in American history, where the poem is meant to mock the government’s viewpoint of the perfect role model for an unrealistic, impractical citizen. The author, W.H. Auden, writes and intends for the historical context of his poem to be in the late 1930’s, when America was going through the Great Depression. Citizens were losing a sense of nationalism for America and had begun to negatively view the government. During this time period, the government had also begun to distribute Social Security cards with personalized federal numbers to American citizens, which was the mark of depersonalization in America’s political system. As a result, the tone is one of mockery, satire, and most importantly, irony. The ironic outlook is evident in some of the following aspects of the poem: the speaker, the portrayal of the speaker, the audience, the speaker’s situation, incongruity between the character’s words and the situation, use of diction, use of humor, and unique characteristics of the poem. The author’s poem is told from the viewpoint of a member of the State, or American government; however, the author and speaker are different people in this particular poem. Textual evidence for the speaker of the poem is evident in the parenthetical title of the poem: “This Marble Monument is erected by the State.” In this case, the “State” is the American government, as the speaker is a member of the State. The State closely monitors an American citizen who serves as a perfect role model for his fellow citizens in the view of the government. Thus, "The Unknown Citizen" reveals irony. The poem is a bitter satire against forms of government that only want their citizens to conform to the governments' norms. The State recognizes the unknown citizen for his abiding by the government's and carefully examines and records all aspects of his life.