Discuss: Representations of Politics Reflect the Best or Worst Human Experiences

Module C Essay (Trial)

Representations of politics reflect the best or worst human experiences.

Discuss this view with detailed reference to your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing.

An author’s personal political perspective and their experiences with political events unequivocally represent the people and politics of their epoch. These messages often reflect how politics can impact and bring out the worst human experiences with individuals and society. This is evident in a study of W.H. Auden’s poetry, specifically “The Unknown Citizen” (1939) & “September 1, 1939” (1939) as well as James McTeigue’s modernised political film “V for Vendetta” (2006). Through the use of their specific textual forms, both authors reiterate the human condition and its impact/reflection of politics. Auden and McTeigue use their poetry and film respectively as a window through which timeless political values can be represented to their audiences.

“The Unknown Citizen” attempts to highlight the growing idea of conformity in the capitalistic society of America. Auden reinforces the effects that politics has on the individual by representing society as an extension or puppet of the government through the repetition of “bureaucracies” & “the State”. The opening ordinals, “JS/M/07” represents the dehumanisation of the individual when political events and attitudes take control of their life to force them to conform. Additionally through consistent repetition and listing of the good deeds performed by the individual “he wasn’t a scab… had a good drink with his mates”, Auden explores the specific nature of human subjugation brought out when an individual attempts to fit in with the wheel of society. However, whilst we are positioned to view the oppressive governments in a negative light, the use of imagery and metaphorical representation “when there was peace, he was for peace” and “when there was war, he went” outlines and allows us to query the individual’s own personal perspective and his willingness to submit to the government. Lastly through dismissing his own rhetorical questions, “Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd.” Auden re-establishes how the effects of the government and their political perspectives can reflect the neutral experiences of an individual in their society.

Auden’s second political poem, “September 1, 1939” offers an alternate perspective to “The Unknown Citizen”, and demonstrates the effects of political motivations and actions on an individual’s experience. By alluding to the ancient Greek philosopher “even Thucydides knew, about democracy and what governments do,” Auden places us in a position to question the effects of political events and how they motivate or change the individual. Whilst Auden’s poetry is not meant to persuade a change in political perspectives, they do represent how his own experiences can shape meaning and the worst of the human experiences. This is evident by the idiom “Even I and the public know… those to whom evil is done, do evil in return,” outlining how when politics influences the individual in a negative light, then the worst experiences are brought out from them. “September 1, 1939”, unlike Auden’s other poetry, does not have a consistent rhyme scheme, which is symbolic of how politics and political events can change or deform an individual’s perspective of themselves and the world around. Therefore Auden effectively reinforces what his oeuvre communications about the suppression of an individual in light of politically astute governments.