The Unknown Citizen

“The Unknown Citizen” makes it clear that there are dangers in conformity, in embracing a system that operates in lockstep. Auden’s poem—told to the reader in the voice of a State that numbers its citizens—shows how such conformity retracts inalienable rights such as freedom and the pursuit of happiness. In this State, the individual is subject to a dystopian surveillance in which only their performance is enumerated. By seeing what the State lauds about the citizen—his conformity—the reader can see what they dislike or hope to eliminate—his individuality.

The citizen in the poem is lauded not for anything he said, or created, nor for any humanitarian act he may have perpetuated. Instead, he is congratulated for being exactly what the State expects him to be: someone against whom there is never an “official complaint” (Line 2). The citizen does not rock the boat. He goes to work every day, buys a paper, pays his fees, and owns everything deemed “necessary to the Modern Man” (Line 20). He does not question any political action, for “when there was peace, he was for peace when there was war, he went” (Line 24). Further, he duplicates his likeness within his “five children” (Line 25), which is approved by the State’s eugenics department, suggesting that he reflects a demographic the State hopes to perpetuate.