Question

Similarities between the hollow men and the unknown citizen

Answer 1

In both hollow men and the Unknown citizen, T. S. Elliot and W.H Auden have tried to put across the uselessness of the common man's hard work and effort.

Explanation

• The unknown citizen was written by W.H Auden in 1939 after he shifted to the United States from his home country England. The basic theme of W. H Auden's work was to convey the idea that people are more interested in those individuals who are cosmopolitan rather than the ordinary and common citizens.
• He also brings forth the idea of the fact that common and ordinary individuals are rarely recognized and remembered for whatever they contribute towards society and its development. This tendency of society at large to forget the contribution and effort of less common and ordinary people is the central theme of Auden's work.
• T.S Elliot, on the contrary, composed The Hollow Men at the backdrop of post-world war I where Europe was trying to come to terms after the upheaval. The poem deals with a similar theme in Auden's unknown citizen, where he talks about the farce human effort, the lost souls who could not get proper identification and recognition due to many reasons. He also talks about the spiritual hollowness of the modern world by severely criticizing individual who forms part of this world.