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The Unknown Citizen - Online Term Paper

The Unknown Citizen

The 20th Century witnessed the rise of nationalism. Government started to justify many of its actions, unimaginable before, as for the good of the nation. The government played a deeper role in people’s personal life, probing and examining every minute detail in search for any “unpatriotic” crime. Individuals who met the government’s standards were lauded as model and patriotic citizens. Those who did not, such as those in the Red Scare of 1950s, were ostracized. This alarmed a generation of writers who wrote to protest this “new” society. W. H. Auden was among one of these writers. In his poem “”, through the use of irony, allusion, ...

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sense of an old-fashioned word” is “a saint.” When asked if the man “was free and happy”, the speaker responds that “the question is absurd, had anything been wrong” he “should certainly has heard.” The irony of the situation is that the very action of probing into the man’s personal life by the official that is absurd. The confidence of the official that he has known everything about the man’s life is a false one. The irony is that the official has no knowledge about the man’s life. All he knows are dry facts. He does not know the private feelings of the man. And it is the private feelings of that man that determine whether he was happy or not.
Beneath the use of ironic tone, the author employs word choice to raise certain intended connotation about the government and the citizen. The words such as “normal”, and “proper”, are used to describe the citizen's attributes as ...

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The Unknown Citizen. (2004, August 22). Retrieved February 16, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Unknown-Citizen/13110

"The Unknown Citizen." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 22 Aug. 2004. Web. 16 Feb. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Unknown-Citizen/13110>

"The Unknown Citizen." Essayworld.com. August 22, 2004. Accessed February 16, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Unknown-Citizen/13110.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 8/22/2004 06:20:11 PM
Category: Miscellaneous
Type: Free Paper
Words: 866
Pages: 4

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