Modern Man - The Unknown Citizen (auden) :: essays research papers

The English-born American author Wystan Hugh Auden was one of the most important poets of the 20th century. Educated at Oxford, he attracted attention as a prominent member of a multitude of young leftist writers who generally expressed a socialist viewpoint. The poetry I have chosen for this essay is "The Unkn birth Citizen". I matte up the time period reflected W.H. Audens views, making the foreign citizen an example of the governments view of the sodding(a) modern man in an overrated unrealistic society.In the time period that he wrote this poem in the late 1930s America was going through dreadful changes. This is the period in history in which The Great Depression was in effect. Most people living in the United States values, morals, and ethics were quick diminishing. The Great Depression fundamentally changed the relationship between the government and the people, who came to dwell and accept a larger federal role in their lives and the economy. end-to-end thi s time period Social Security was created.Back then this poem moldiness have had a different meaning than today, it shows the value government has on issuing Social Security numbers. They make people believe its for your own benefit when in reality they have the best use of it to click and retrieve information about your personal intent history. We see government as people we elected to represent our views they see us as a number. "Was he free? Was he happy? The question was absurd Had anything been violate we should certainly have heard (Auden 212)".I also felt he was expressing the position that government makes it seem that everyone else is doing the "right thing" so you must draw him or her, and if you do so living a quality life will reward you. Their standards are so high that you will neer reach the optimum point, so you piddle hard your whole life trying to improve. "His poems and essays present the idea of the good society as, at best, a possibil ity, never actually achieved, but which one must always work (Mendalson 112)". "Audens poems speak instead in a voice almost unknown to English poetry science the eighteenth century the voice of a citizen who knows the obligations of his citizenship (Mendalson 113).