The Unknown Citizen
Written in 1939, “The Unknown Citizen” by W.H. Auden is a satiric epitaph for the individual man in a modern bureaucracy. The poem is addressed to “Js/07/m/378”, a social security like number, and an allusion to the national monuments for the unknown soldiers who died in battle. Similar to Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World or George Orwell’s 1984, the poem reflects upon the diminishing role of individuality in the modern state. Given the context Auden wrote in, with the rise of fascism in Germany and Stalinism in Russia, individuality appeared to be compromised in the interest of the state. Auden, already a prescient poet at the time, recognized and humorously criticized the descent of modern man. Through an analysis of the use of satire, point of view, rhetorical questions, and appeal to pathos, it becomes clear that the epitaph is not only for the unknown man, but instead for the concept of individuality in modern society.
Primarily, Auden criticizes the bureaucratic system through the use of satire. The use of satire is important because it changes the interpretation of the poem’s style and structure. The poem works as a critique of bureaucratic society by contrasting the reader’s expectations of an elegy with the lyrical quality of the poem and its rhyme structure. The style of the poem mirrors that of a traditional funeral epitaph, in that it celebrates the life of the unknown citizen. Both the title “The Unknown Citizen” and the subtext “To Js/07/m/378…This Marble Monument is Erected by the State” indicate that the poem is an elegy (1-2). The use of anapest throughout the poem creates a sing-song musical quality to what is supposed to be a serious literary document. Thus, while the poem commemorat...
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... bureaucracy dehumanizes individuals through the repeated negative association of its branches with capitalization. In response the reader becomes emotionally attached to the individual not described by the bureaucracy, the actual unknown citizen.
While the world has not progressed into the authoritarian state imagined by Huxley or Orwell, Auden’s poem may in fact be a prophetic glimpse into the future of humankind. Through an analysis of The Unknown Citizen’s satirical nature, point of view, rhetorical questions, and appeal to pathos it becomes clear that the success of a bureaucracy comes at the expense of the individual. In doing so, Auden enables the reader to become conscious of the importance of individuality. Thus, The Unknown Citizen becomes a symbol for the excess of bureaucracy, the death of individuality, and the importance of freedom and happiness.
This itself alludes to America’s extreme response to communism during the Cold War era, under the influence of Senator Joe McCarthy. Similar to the paranoia that characterized the McCarthy era, Orwell’s dystopian society was expected to betray their friends, family and co-workers for the benefit of the state and themselves. This is made explicitly evident during Winston’s visit to the cafe, in which the telescreen sang; “Under the spreading chestnut tree/ I sold you and you sold me…”Foreshadowing Winston’s eventual betrayal of Maria in order to save himself, and his conformity to the party. Furthermore, the notion that “nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres in your skull” becomes ironic as the novel develops in which the criminalisation of unorthodox ideologies leads to the punishment of “thoughtcrime”, and the eventual “vaporisation” of dissidents. This itself alludes to the ‘great purges’ that took place under the terror that characterized Joseph Stalin’s reign. Likewise, the inherent fear of eccentricity amongst the oppressed citizens of “Airstrip one” is highlighted by the nature of “facecrime” in which the presence of an improper expression or any suggestion of abnormality could be punished. Thus, through Orwell 's effective use of allusion and characterisation, contextual audiences are provided with a didactic warning regarding the nature of a totalitarian reign, in which a “hideous ecstasy of fear” influences society’s
Destruction of individuality is an idea both authors explore to expose the broad social wrong of an oppressive society. Both Orwell and Niccol use their protagonists to demonstrate how dictatorial governments that destroy any semblance of individuality are inherently wrong. Orwell uses third person narration, which directly follows his protagonist as he fights to maintain his individuality in a society driven to eliminate the capability of “love, or friendship, or joy of living” by making him “hollow”. By employing the use third person narration Orwell portrays to the reader that even an individual with powerful intent to remain different can be broken down and made to believe that “2+2 = 5”. Similarly, Niccol uses extreme close up shots focusing on Vincent’s cleaning process and the motif of constant DNA checks to reinforce how authoritarian societies can demolish all sense of individuality. Vincent, an “in-valid” must take extreme measures to overcome the prejudices of soc...
“The Perils of Indifference” In April, 1945, Elie Wiesel was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp after struggling with hunger, beatings, losing his entire family, and narrowly escaping death himself. He at first remained silent about his experiences, because it was too hard to relive them. However, eventually he spoke up, knowing it was his duty not to let the world forget the tragedies resulting from their silence. He wrote Night, a memoir of his and his family’s experience, and began using his freedom to spread the word about what had happened and hopefully prevent it from happening again.
Tragic events occur daily around the globe in 2015, these occurrences have become routine. The world has considerably changed in the past five years; this is mainly due to the Arab spring (A term that symbolizes the fall of oppressive regimes in the Middle East. While in the Middle East the Arab Spring is TAKING PLACE, in America gun control is a major issue. One of the many letters written by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty Four is that of oppressive governments and the basic freedoms of humanity. This specific article and 1984 share similarities in how both discuss the nature of humans. The main themes they discuss are: Death, Loss of innocence, as well as hope.
...s poems publication. In `A un olmo seco', we discover references to the cemetery of Leonor's grave, and the beauty of new shoots set against the decay of the `olmo's' trunk, which evokes Machado's young wifr in her terminal condition. `A un olmo seco' is highlights the central theme of landscape and countryside, and through the physical description, Machado remembers his personal experience in Soria. The river Duero acts as a leitmotif for the cemetery where his wife was buried. In `Caminos' as Machado develops the theme of his displacement in Baeza, his mood is finally attributed to the loss of his wife. Landscape can be linked with inner emotional landscape. The landscape in this poem is ominous, violent and inflexible: "hendido por el rayo." Therefore, landscape acts as a way of revealing inner emotion and Spanish National character throughout the collection.
Imagine a society in which its citizens have forfeited all personal liberties for government protection and stability; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, explores a civilization in which this hypothetical has become reality. The inevitable trade-off of citizens’ freedoms for government protection traditionally follows periods of war and terror. The voluntary degradation of the citizens’ rights begins with small, benign steps to full, totalitarian control. Major methods for government control and censorship are political, religious, economic, and moral avenues. Huxley’s Brave New World provides a prophetic glimpse of government censorship and control through technology; the citizens of the World State mimic those of the real world by trading their personal liberties for safety and stability, suggesting that a society similar to Huxley’s could exist outside the realm of dystopian science fiction.
Despite the state’s glorified rhetoric, Zamyatin reveals the volatile nature of stability when people walk “in twos” (129). This deviation from the norm of four signals a crack in the society’s ability to control its populace. When the government announces the Operation, pandemonium erupts as ciphers run without “[singing] the Hymn” and a couple “shamelessly copulates….without a ticket” (190, 192). The ciphers oppose routine. Before this ultimate requirement to conform, no cipher willingly lends himself to greater society, revealing the human instinct to be free. Even those who passionately embrace society’s standards quickly abandon them. As the expectations of the state clash with the nature of humanity, the plausibility of regulated happiness diminishes and becomes
Identity, in today’s society, is often taken for granted. We have the ability to be anything we wish to be and act in any way we wish to act, but in the 1984 novel by George Orwell, identity is not taken for granted because it does not exist at all. Winston Smith, the narrator, lives in a dystopian society based on the idea of totalitarian government rule. This government is known as Big Brother. In order for Big Brother to stay in power, a few things are necessary: identity cannot exist; everything and everyone must be uniform; the past must be controlled in order to regulate the present; and the people must constantly be practicing the ideas of Newspeak and Doublethink, a form of control the government holds over the people.
What does it mean to be human? Is it the millions of cells that you’re composed of, or is it something more? In George Orwell’s book 1984, through the use of his protagonist, Orwell looks at what it really means to be human. In a world that is built on destruction and manipulation, Orwell takes a look at how a totalitarian government affects humankind and a person’s ability to stay “human”.
What does it mean to be human? Is it the millions of cells that you’re composed of? Or is it something more? In George Orwell’s book 1984, through the use of his protagonist, Orwell looks at what it really means to be human. In a world that is built on destruction and manipulation, Orwell takes a look at how a totalitarian government affects humankind and a person’s ability to stay “human”.
The books Brave New World by Aldus Huxley and Anthem by Ayn Rand are both valuable twentieth-century contributions to literature. Both books explore the presence of natural law in man and propose a warning for what could happen when man's sense of right and wrong is taken from him. In this essay, I hope to show how these seemingly unrelated novels both expound upon a single, very profound, idea.
In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the narrator goes through many hardships that make him who he is. He experiences being discouraged and unlucky many different times throughout the novel. However, there are three major times that the narrator goes through these hardships. He is mistreated for his race, especially in the beginning of the novel. He is discouraged by the president of his college when he is expelled. He is also taken down when he finds out that the Brotherhood is not who he thought they were. In Ellison’s Invisible Man, the narrator is degraded and humiliated three major times throughout the novel.
To be frank, I am conflicted as to whether or not bureaucracy dehumanizes a person or not. I don’t entirely believe that bureaucracy was
In order to comprehend the emotional labour of managers working in a bureaucratic environment it is essential to explore the concept of bureaucracy. Max Weber (1981: 21), describes a fully developed bureaucracy as dehumanized in the sense that love, hatred, and all purely personal, irrational, and emotional elements which escape calculation are eliminated. The bureaucratic principle of equal treatment according to formal rules eliminates traditional forms of governance based upon personal relationships, power and privilege (Weber 1981: 24-5). According to Weber bureaucracy is the most efficient and rational way in which human activity
Whenever we talk about ‘Bureaucracy’, it is most likely that audience heard this in past, knew something about it and found able to locate its area of application in concurrent industrial organizations and Government departments. In this sense, bureaucracy has really reached to peoples of different strata of society though they differ in perception based on their past experiences with bureaucracy.