The Unknown Citizen

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1940

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

This Marble Monument

When people die, their loved ones often put a marker on their grave, carved with their name and birth and death dates. This commemorates a life worthy of note to at least another individual, if not to the populace at large. Unidentified soldiers who have died at war have been given tombs to honor them, showing their service and sacrifice. Auden deliberately uses such a “monument” to show that the active citizen has died, becoming just a number as they fall in line with the will of the State, nullifying their individual existence. This idea is shown, too, by the use of “marble” to describe the marker. Marble is used due to its strength as a stone resistant to weather and wear. At first, the fact that “JS/07 M 378” has a monument made of marble seems to make him significant, a man of importance. This is belied however by the lack of personal details, his heroics being of everyday activity. Instead, the monument is not for the individual citizen but what he stood for instead: absolute conformity. What is written in stone is not individual greatness but the sublimation of self to the State’s desires. The fact that the State places this idea into a monument made of marble shows they intend their control to last forever.

Fudge Motors, Inc.

For the majority of his life, “JS/07 M 378” worked for “Fudge Motors, Inc.” (Line 8). This is an allusion to Ford Motor Company, the automobile factory started by American Henry Ford. Ford Motors was one of the first places to employ the use of the modern assembly line, in which car parts were moved on conveyer belts to be retrieved and/or placed by workers. This revolutionized the car industry, but some felt it dehumanized the worker, making them part of the machinery rather than an individual. Here, Auden’s poem emphasizes this downside, suggesting that the citizen himself is a part shipped around by the State. “JS/07 M 378” seems to have “satisfied his employers” (Line 8) but the company’s moniker subtly call this into question. The name “Fudge” (Line 8) evokes the idiom of someone fudging the truth to present a desired picture of the truth. This subliminally hints at the plural speakers’ unreliability, suggesting that perhaps they should not be believed. This in turn calls into question further statistical evidence, and leads the reader to the questions articulated later in the poem, “Was he free? Was he happy?” (Line 28 ). While the automobile company implies the man showed up day after day, “except for the War till the day he retired” (Line 6), the contrast shows that this is hardly the entire truth of a human life.

Eugenist

Near the end of the poem, the State notes, the man “married and added five children to the population, / Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation” (Lines 25-26). These lines allude to the practice of eugenics, which is, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the questionable process of “racial hygiene,” or “arranged reproduction to increase the occurrence of inheritable characteristics regarded as desirable” (See: Further Reading & Resources). In the early 20th century, societies for eugenics existed in many industrialized countries and endorsed Charles Davenport’s objectives, who considered eugenics to be a science that would improve the human race through “better breeding.” In the 19th century, eugenics was cutting-edge science, but now is recognized as a pseudoscience. Eugenics was used by the Nazis to force sterilization, justify medical experimentation, and condone the “murder of the institutionalized disabled in the clandestine ‘euthanasia’ (T4) program.’” Eugenics also underpinned the Nazi focus on the Aryan master race and their persecution of other populations. The Eugenist’s approval of the unknown citizen shows that the man’s ethnicity is one that has been approved by the State. This allusion helps to make sure the political point of the poem is fully made. While some of the bureaucracies are labelled in ways that might suggest humor, the reference to eugenics on the eve of World War II is both prescient and ominous.