Unknown Citizen
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The speaker constructs a satiric portrait of the average citizen. In the first line of the poem the speaker turns to the “Bureau of Statistics” and in line 3 to “reports”, as a source of information regarding the вЂ?unknown’ citizen.
This is intensely ironic, for the Bereau does contain detailed information about a person. However it fails to truly identify those qualities which distinguish each idividual.
For instance there is no information about a persons hopes, dreams and disires. Thus the individual remains unknown.
In line 4 the unknown citizen is referred to as a “saint” in the “modern sense” of word. What distinguish sainthood in this poem is a life of complete and utter ordinarines.
The citizen acts in a accepted or expected way. As noted later in the poem, when there was war he was for war, when there was peace, he was for peace.
It suggest that his convictions and beliefs are formed not through individual reflections and personal conviction, but rather by the greater political, social, moral and economic institusion that seek
and dictate conformity to a standard thought and way of life. Thus, the unknown citizen ends up serving the “Greater Community” by perpetuating the ideologie that the modern institution define, by fitting into the mold instead of breaking it.
The poem reaches its climax within the closing two lines of the poem. After outlining the standards of normalcy dictated by society, questions regarding freedom and happiness are absurd.
They are ridiculous becuase the modern society difined in the lines above