Tag: English 1

In “Richard Cory” and “the Unknown Citizen,” the subjects of the poems are perceived through public view in a way that differs from their true internal state of being. “Richard Cory” follows a wealthy man through the streets. Cory is perceived by the townspeople as royalty, but he later commits suicide, despite his idealistic and successful life. Similarly, Auden’s Unknown Citizen has a has a fittingly unacknowledged death after living a life of conformity that appears to be perfectly normal and organized. The importance of appearance and reputation is challenged by the lives and deaths of Richard Cory and the Unknown Citizen through their seclusion and lack of meaningful relationships, their idealistic status held together by conformity, and the outcomes of their supposedly perfect lives.

Both poems challenge the importance of reputation brought their apparent lack of meaningful relationships. In Robinson’s poem, the persona makes it clear to the reader that most citizens view Richard Cory as imperial, despite that “he was quietly arrayed” and “he was always human when he talked.” Cory avoiding drawing such attention to himself through his words or actions, and Richard Cory clearly lacked something important in his life, yet the citizens seem to both love and envy him. What Richard Cory lacked was a healthy and meaningful relationship with the people around him, which would have been more beneficial to his happiness than any amount of gawking. Similarly, the Unknown Citizen lacked anything more than insignificant, expected relationships. He had the appropriate number of friends. “was popular with his mates and liked a drink,” and “was married and added five children to the population… the right number for a parent of his generation.” However, no data or statistics about the man could have truthfully determined if his friends really cared about his happiness and well-being. Both men would have benefited more from having a few meaningful, passionate friends than they did from letting everyone believe that their lives were perfect.

Richard Cory and the Unknown Citizen both held ideal statuses that were held together by conscious conformity. The idolization of their lives by others challenges the idea that keeping up with society’s definition of success is healthy. In “the Unknown Citizen,” the man purposefully conformed to his community’s standards of success and happiness. The Bureau of Statistics believes that “in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint.” Any other citizen surely would have loved to live the life that the Unknown Citizen did. Every statistic said he should be satisfied, but the poet mocks this idea through the naivete of his persona. Likewise, Richard Cory seemed to have what was an ideal life in other citizens’ perspectives: “He was rich- Yes, richer than a king… In fine, we thought that he was everything… To make us wish that we were in his place.” In reality, he only conformed to the standards of the highest levels of success. He had wealth, but people need more than materials for happiness. Similar to the Unknown Citizen, this might have occurred to the others if they would have considered to him to be real person rather than a god. The Unknown Citizen’s reputation and Richard Cory’s social rank led to idolization, but neither of the two were truly happy, which challenges the idea that appearance is important.

The outcomes of their supposedly perfect lives is the most ironic challenger of the importance of appearance. Richard Cory “went home and put a bullet through his head,” and the Unknown Citizen’s death made his life anonymous. No one remembers anything about him except that he had a pristine record. According to citizens and statistics, each man was said to lead an ideal life of success. But despite their perfect lifestyles, they each died either in anonymity or from suicide. The wealthy man that everyone envied was not truly happy, and the ‘perfect’ citizen will go unremembered.

The idea that appearances and reputation are important is challenged by the deaths of Richard Cory and the Unknown Citizen through their lack of meaningful relationships, their idealized lives of conformity, and the outcomes of their supposedly perfect lives. No statistics, data, or opinions can truly determine a person’s happiness, success, or worth. Even though a person may appear to have a perfectly normal and organized life, they could have a perfectly normal and organized life, they do have personal situations that no one else knows about. Everyone has issues that they must deal with, and truthfully, the most important aspect of life is not a lucrative job or a normal social life. What every person needs is another person’s support.

His calloused hands sting with each flip of a page. Threats of lashings hang over his head, weighing down his thoughts. Still, African American slave Frederick Douglass continues his task of learning how to read. With each letter learned, his vision clears, his mind grows more intuitive, and his perspective develops. Like Douglass, learning to read and taking advantage of this ability breaks our chains of monotonous thinking. Learning to read and developing this skill polishes our understanding of communication and enables us to form our own thoughts and opinions.

By learning to read, people also develop a better understanding of language and communication. For instance, in developing countries across the globe, illiteracy is linked to poverty. While learning to read couldn’t single-handedly fix economies or stop wars, having a basic education provides citizens with the ability to communicate and analyze, which is a strong foundation for improvement. Illiteracy creates instability, especially when nations fall behind regarding technological forms of communication, but learning to read opens the mind and leads to innovation. Developing the ability to read furthers our understanding of communication, which is a starting point to further understand people and social habits.

The ability to read also assists people in analyzing situations and forming opinions. Rather than accepting what everything peers, leaders, and the media believe, a person can analyze a situation. For example, a gym-hating hypochondriac who sees an advertisement about the newest, fastest, and cheapest way to lose weight might initially fall victim to the ad’s propaganda techniques. However, when he decides to research the product, he finds that it has a reputation for its unhealthy side effects. Instead of thinking in a conformed manner, we can all remain open-minded and recognize instances in which there are many different perspectives. Along with this, reading requires one to form images of characters on personality rather than physical appearances. When a young child with a growing mind visits the library, a book won’t supply her with much information about the characters’ appearances. For the most part, she is provided with their decisions and actions. She develops the habit of forming opinions about peers and elders based off of their personality, which is uncommon yet necessary in our society. Learning to read teaches us to think for ourselves and form individual opinions.

Through learning to read, Douglass was able to discover the injustices of slavery, and more importantly, that this oppression was so massive and atrocious that he’d been taught to think slavery was normal and acceptable. Learning to read gives people the opportunity to better understand communication and to leave behind monotonous or conformed thinking.