What is the theme of the Unknown Citizen?
This poem voices Auden's concern for man's situation in the modern world. The unknown citizen is anyone and everyone. He lives to serve the interests of the Establishment. The State and the industrial economy have reduced him to automation. He has no identity of his own.
He is referred to by some number. He enjoys good health. He lives in comfort. In the worldly sense, he is successful, too. But he is neither happy nor free. Even in the purely personal matter of raising his family, he has to take care of the will of the State.
The unknown citizen begot only five children because it was the norm of the time. Thus, the modern man has no freedom of the will. He has been completely dehumanized and this is what shocks Auden the most.
