Conformity and rebellion were the major and dominant themes in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature. The importance of conformity has reached its highest stage during this time. Most of the literary works from this period have often represented the attraction and frustration with this trend. The language of literature will reveal the confrontation with and frustration against the recognized social system. The word rebellion literally means a structured opposition against an established authority or an administrative system through violence. Poets, novelists, dramatists have used their pens against the existing systems. The poem ‘The Unknown citizen’ by W.H. Auden discusses some serious social problems like searching for identity. The whole poem is about a man living up to the expectations and wishes of his society. ‘The Market Economy’ by Marge Piercy also presents some vital social problems. The poem discusses the exchanges made by the average people for convenience without considering the results. Both authors present the picture of conformity and raise some questions against it. This paper discusses the similarities and differences of the themes of conformity and rebellion in Auden’s poem ‘The Unknown citizen’ and ‘The Market Economy’ by Marge Piercy. The paper attempts a study which is intended to find out themes, that is, searching for identity and the fight for alternatives, in Auden’s poem, “The Unknown citizen” and “The Market Economy” by Marge Piercy. Auden and Piercy try to express the fact that the existing society will not serve its people after manipulating them. The dead soldier in Auden’s poem and a modern man in Piercy’s poem stands for the same object. The poems of W.H. Auden and Marge PieCitizenly express the feature of the age- conformity and rebellion- in which they lived, and the same can be found in the given poems written by them.
Searching for the self is a major theme in Auden’s poetry. The poet here presents the picture of a dead soldier with a lot of expectations from his society. Everything is known but his name is unknown. The government considers him only as a servant of the nation, so the reader comes to know only the official number of the dead man. The subtitle of the poem reveals the only identity of the dead soldier in this manner: “‘To JS/07/M/378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State.” (Auden). His conformity is perfect. He has considered all the things in the right way. The press is happy because he bought newspapers every day. Records point out that he has the right number of children and he gave them proper education. The authority forces him to lead a structured life. The following lines reveal the state of an average citizen in the 1930s:
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues (Auden lines 5-10).
He worked regularly; he gave the taxes regularly, provided proper education to his children, and served the nation. But the society considered him as an average man. The state wants the people to become average. The state demands all the people should follow the traditional life procedure. He should do everything for the community, pay all the taxes, take health policies, but he has no right to support his own self. The democratic government wants a person to become a unit of the great community and the dead man has no self-identity. The poet needs a rebellion against this social, system.
The poem “Market Economy” also discusses the same loss of identity in modern society. The modern man never tries to change his established lifestyle. The existing system is ensconced in a most comfortable world. In the world of color TVs, fast food, polyvinyl cups, pre-cooked dinner, and smog cities – man has become an automatic machine. He demands more comfortable alternatives through exchanges. He receives physical pain, cancer, his baby becomes crooked spine; he will die on his fifty-one. Modern man lost his identity and he searches for a new one. The poet says:
You get a house in the suburbs
But you work in a new plastics
Factory and die at fifty-one
When your kidneys turn of (Piercy line17-21).
The poet also uses the image of ‘plastic factory’ in a sardonic way. Modern Man likes pre-cooked food and he fails to satisfy his body and mind. Here, we see the man searching for new alternatives.
Despite the similarities in the presentation of conformity and rebellion, one can see some slight differences also between the two poems. In “The Unknown Citizen” the poet demands a revolution against the established social system. The dead soldier has been conscious of his duties and responsibilities. He works for making peace and fight against his enemies. The concluding lines reveal the real touch of rebellion. It says: Was he free? Was he Happy? The question is absurd (Auden line 28). He does everything in the favor of the state, but the state never considers him as a citizen. He does not get freedom, his self remains unsatisfied. But the poet says that that question is absurd. Because according to the state, a person should follow conformity. Auden criticizes the social and political situations of America in the 1930s. But in The poem The Market Economy, the poet demands not such a revolution. Here the poet suffers the inability of modern man to distinguish between good and evil by selecting modern lifestyles. The poet calls for a rebellion in that field. Modern man suffers from an unending thirst for modern facilities and he is never ready to move against the traditional way of life.
To conclude, one can see that the main themes expressed in both the poems are conformity and rebellion, which was the main feature of the age they lived in. Even in spite of the similarities existing between the two poems, there are also some slight differences in the presentation of the theme of conformity and rebellion in the given poems of W.H. Auden and Marge Piercy. Both poems discuss conformity in detail. In Auden’s poem, it states the representation of conformity, and in Piercy’s poem, modern society is the exponent of conformity. In the first poem, ‘Unknown Citizen’, the poet demands a rebellion through the character of a dead soldier while In ‘The Market Economy’ the poet indirectly demands the revolution against the frozen state of humanity in the modern age.
Works Cited
Auden. The Unknown Citizen.
Piercy. The Unknown Citizen