The Unknown Citizen

The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden is about the man who “worked in a factory and never got fired”. The protagonist is not distinguished by his personality because he is just another standard worker, which demonstrates the loss of his sense of individuality and purpose in the world. That is why he is called “the unknown citizen”; he is a generic person without a name or personal identity.

Life in the world Auden creates revolves around details provided by the Bureau of Statistics that are used to help citizens conform to the government’s idea of a perfect citizen. For example, the unknown citizen does not have the average number of children, but the “right number of children for his generation”, something that is determined by the government's interests. Additionally, he has “proper opinions for the time of the year”, showing that the ideal citizen is the same as the average one.

In an oppressive society like this one “if anything was wrong, they [The Bureau of Statistics] should have heard”, which makes it dangerous to not comply with the government’s ideals. Ultimately, an oppressive government can be defined by its efforts to track every individual’s actions, causing a diverse population to become a generic one. The lack of freedom and ability to choose one’s own path in life is oppression in and of itself.

This story is about a dystopian society that is predicated on deceiving its citizens by distorting its past. Withholding the truth allows the government to control every aspect of the people’s lives. The main character is forced into being happy when there is nothing meaningful in his life that would bring happiness in a more typical society. In fact, while the main character seems happy on the surface when we dive a little deeper we see that this is not the case.

The man who “worked in a factory” is not distinguishable from other individuals. Because factories require many people performing monotonous tasks over and over again in order to operate, the notion that working in a factory is enough to make someone happy is preposterous.