The Unknown Citizen

Improved Essays
The Person Behind the Mask Every person is different and everyone has their own opinions. THe community that a person is born in is not a choice made by the individual. Two pieces of literature that really bring out these ideas are, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin and “The Unknown Citizen” by W.H. Auden. In both pieces the author brings out a situation where a person is unhappy with their life and how the people around them live. “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” tells an amazing story of a perfect city that gets all the great things in life at the cost of a little boy suffering. As well in the “Unknown Citizen” Auden tells a story about a government official reviewing a unhappy man’s life to determine whether he …show more content…
Throughout the poem a man is evaluated by an government official, and the monotone tone that is used creates a sense of falsehood in the way they think of life. As the person reviews the man, the wording that is used causes the reader to feel as if everything in their community is fake, “The press are convinced that he bought a paper every day…” (Auden). This monotone voice brings out the ignorance in the government official by determining if the man was happy solely based on things such as getting the newspaper. It makes it evident to the reader that the people in charge do not understand the essence of human life. Creating this robot like persona for the reader brings out how the rest of the community must see life. For the community being mediocre is the ideal life, but for the man the same values are not true. As the the reviewer finally ends the analysis “it” mentions, “Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.” (Auden). When the reader sees this in the serious tone of the analyser it creates a sense of irony. This line shows how there must have been some occurrence where the man had snapped from the basic life he had and did something bad. However, in the government official’s analysis a sense of irony is formed since it believes that the ingredients for a happy life are such mediocre things. Although the man had lived in the community for such a long time, since his values were not the same as the community’s he had finally snapped from living that unfulfilling life. Auden’s use of monotone tone helps the reader realize that the government does not realize the real human experience and helps visualize the mediocre community created by such thoughts. Overall, the man symbolizes how when a person is not able to truly enjoy life within a community, no matter how long they try, they will still remain

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