DEAR READER
Cosmic Funnies
Claire Keane
Mike Driver
we're not kids anymore.
⁂
Game of Thrones Daily
taylor price
YOU ARE THE REASON
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
Discoholic 🪩
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
Not today Justin
pixel skylines
AnasAbdin
No title available
shark vs the universe
JVL
No title available
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Canada
seen from Netherlands
seen from Netherlands
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Belarus
seen from Vietnam
seen from Japan
seen from United Kingdom
seen from India
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Canada
seen from T1
seen from Germany
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Japan
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from T1
seen from Malaysia
@lethargyofthesoul
About Us!
This Online Website was created by Nico Arevalo, Elyssa Castro, and Carisa Panga, all junior students taking up BA English Studies: Literature as of the making of this project.
This output is in fulfilment of our Final Creative Project for English 131, Modern British Literature, for the First Semester of AY 2025-2026 under Assistant Professor Loren Evangelista-Agaloos.
Brief Overview on Themes & Texts
The rapid urbanization and industrialization of early twentieth-century Britain created social and economic environments in which conformity became both a practical necessity and a cultural expectation. As Britain’s imperial state expanded, it became increasingly organized into bureaucratic systems (Vernon 14). With the growth of urban cities and administrative institutions, individuals were increasingly measured by their ability to adhere to standardized norms of work, consumption and civic behavior. This meant that an individual’s successful performance and acceptance into society depended largely on their ability to fit within these social and bureaucratic frameworks.
Written in the Modernist era of British Literature, both Virginia Woolf’s “Solid Objects”and W.H. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” question traditional bureaucratic standards and shows the friction between individuality and societal expectations.
“Solid Objects” traverses between the two spaces of one’s passion and societal pressures. We follow John, who abandons and literally damns his profitable political career to pursue his fascination with discarded glass objects. This passion leads to disappointment from his friend Charles and, ultimately, rejection and abandonment; revealing how society values success that contributes to its systems rather than personal joy and fulfillment. Despite it all, however, John is able to find genuine happiness and contentment in this unconventional interest of his; he remains faithful to his growing collection regardless of Charles’ clear disapproval, thus showing that contentment can also come from following one’s passion, one’s own path rather than meeting the standards of society when it comes to success and equating that success with happiness.
On the other hand, “The Unknown Citizen”, shows us a man who conforms perfectly to what’s expected of him but loses his identity, his individuality, in the process hence the title. He is presented and known as the perfect mold of what a citizen should be: obedient, altruistic, and serves the ‘Greater Community’. Yet, he remains completely unknown as a person, as a human being and not as a statistic. Auden, by reducing this man’s identity to official Government records, gives a critique on a society that places its values in conformity with the systems over personal achievements, happiness, and even humanness. In the end, calling these things ‘absurd’ further highlights just how little bureaucracies care about the actual lives of the individuals they govern over.
Original Content from the Group
For this project, we also include creative contents that extend and reinforce our argument about conformity and individuality in Woolf’s “Solid Objects” (1920) and “The Unknown Citizen” (1940).
To start, here’s a curated Spotify playlist that speaks of the same theme, ideally to have playing in the background as you browse through the blog.
We hope that these outputs help to better translate the concerns raised in Woolf’s and Auden’s texts into contemporary visual forms. Enjoy!
Link To the Texts
Virginia Woolf’s “Solid Objects” (1920) https://biblioklept.org/2023/05/07/solid-objects-virginia-woolf/
W.H Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” (1940) https://poets.org/poem/unknown-citizen
On Virginia Woolf’s “Solid Objects” (1920)
Woolf’s contrast of John’s personal values with Charles’ more career-focused priorities reveals how modern society in this period of British literature was not as understanding of unconventional interests. John’s former success and brilliance in his career in politics as a candidate for Parliament is emphasized to make his professional collapse among his constituents more impactful throughout the story. The disappointment of his colleagues and dismay of Charles are crucial in stressing how society and peers perceive people based on their adherence to conventional expectations. Moreover, people stopped visiting him and inviting him to dinner because he was “too silent” to be approached. However, his silence is attributed to the fact that they were not understanding of his genuine passion. His inability to meet both professional and social expectations exposes that bureaucratic standards act as the primary measure of one’s worth because his social reputation took a downward turn once he abandoned politics.
Despite the social rejection he experiences, John is happy because his pursuit of his genuine interests fulfills a desire that his career in politics could not satisfy. His collection of solid objects engages his intellectual and philosophical curiosities, which is significantly different from the lack of imaginative drive that he experienced in his former job. He protects this mindset all throughout the story, as we see in the end how he maintains his purpose and reaffirms that he has not given up. In his perspective, these objects and the search for them are rewarding, showing that his contentment comes from his conviction in his chosen path rather than external success.
John’s fixation on discarded solid objects can be read as a reflection of society’s tendency to dismiss or devaluate that which it does not understand or agree with. It is observed that he is more motivated in pursuing his collection than he was in fulfilling his professional obligations as a political employee. This emphasizes that a rational and successful man is willing to let go of professional stability because he finds deeper fulfillment in an endeavor that resonates with his personal fascinations. The solid objects, them, function as a parallel to society’s “discarding” of whimsical, liberating aspirations in favor of conventional norms. However, the narrative also suggests that such endeavors are not futile; as seen in John’s determined response to Charles that he disagrees with him about the failure of his life. This draws the concluding distinction between the push towards bureaucratic success and the importance of following one’s own passions, even if they do not align with the status quo.
The short film above reflects the expectations and realities of being a university student. We might all be familiar with the pressures to stay on top of our work and deadlines amidst the simultaneous desire to balance our social life and well-being. The video expresses how these demands could make students feel tied to their productivity and academic performance, mirroring how John was perceived by his peers primarily through his professional success rather than his personal fulfillment. At the same time, we also draw a parallel between the unknown citizen, who is recognized only for meeting institutional standards. This is much like students who can feel reduced to their academics rather than recognized as individuals who also need time to address their fatigue and immerse themselves in their interests.
Note: This film was inspired by https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSPUsffHT/ https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSPUpQCXh/
View the short film in higher quality here!
On W.H Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” (1940)
Auden depicts the modern man through an unknown individual who dedicates his life to working for and contributing to society, particularly within an industrial and bureaucratic system. This affirms the poem’s title, as there is no mention of his personality. Instead, he is praised as a “saint” for fulfilling all the expected responsibilities of the Modern Man. We argue that this text emulates the extremities of the theme because the subject’s identity is defined entirely by conformity to social and institutional standards. He is recognized for his steady factory employment, his obedience to union rules, his marriage and family life and his flawless record with state institutions, all of which satisfy the state. Other more personal characteristics or unique thoughts, if he had any, are deliberately omitted from his description. In this way, he is reduced to his contributions as a worker, consumer, and citizen within an urban, industrialized society.
Movie poster for the 1999 film Being John Malkovich.
The poem notably starts with the Bureau of Statistics stating that there was “no official complain” ever heard from him based on his conduct reports. This line immediately sets an impersonal tone because it expresses that the citizen’s life is only valued through official evaluation. Rather than being known, he is processed, examined, and approved by a higher authority. Whether he was content with his life, had aspirations beyond his current activities, or experienced challenges in life was unnecessary to his record, that is, as long as it did not compromise his work. His silence amidst these enumerated evaluations also reinforces his status as a model citizen because assuming he had any reservations about his way of life, he never spoke about it and thus, the system continues to perpetuate these values.
Technology further stresses this conformity by defining what counts as a proper life in modern society. The citizen is recognized for owning a phonograph, a radio, a car, and an installment plan, all of which fit nearly into the consumer culture and the material necessities of a successful life. Technology also regulates thought and behavior, as seen with his routine engagement with mass media and his agreement with public opinion. These material and social markers, while making him a model of the Modern Man, do not account for his personal fulfillments. At the end of the poem, the narrator asks whether the subject was free and happy to present how despite meeting every external standard, the citizen may still lack genuine contentment due to a lack of individuality.
"Your Own Path", 2025
Elyssa Castro
Watercolor on Watercolor Paper
This painting was done to further amplify the message of conformity by visually representing it as a flattening of identity. It depicts a mass crowd of colorless, silhouetted figures to suggest a homogenized society in which individuality is erased and people are reduced to indistinguishable forms. This rings especially true to the modern realities of Auden’s poem. Amidst this crowd stands a single figure rendered in color, whose brightness draws attention not only to their own individuality but also to the absence of identity around them. This aspect is inspired by John’s firm rejection of what was expected of him.
Comparative Analysis of Both Texts
The pressure to conform. This is explored by both Woolf and Auden in their texts albeit through vastly different portrayals of the modern man. In Solid Objects, the weight of conformity is a force that he immediately damns in the opening scenes of the story; this goes to show just how much it has troubled him to be pushed to damnation. This force, however, and his discovery of his fascination for his solid object gradually begins to isolate him which then results in him refusing to commit to the expectations laid out for him any further. His radical change from a promising political career to serving his own wonderment and Charles’ reaction to it, reducing his happiness and expression of freedom to mere “Pretty stones,” before he abandons him indefinitely, exposes how harsh society polices any sort of deviation from the norm, treating unproductivity and happiness through personal endeavors as a form of failure. Furthermore, what’s more interesting is that this is a path John chose himself. Willingly, he goes through great lengths to collect his glass shards, his objects, journeying outside the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable by society. Charles’ abandonment of him and John losing his job further hammers in the fragility of one’s identity when it isn’t chained to bureaucratic pillars—when they no longer serve an ideal.
https://in.pinterest.com/pin/826621706646731441/
On the other hand, Auden’s poem presents us with a man who does not deviate at all and conforms completely—a man so rigidly aligned with bureaucracy that he becomes indistinguishable, unknown by the powers that govern him. He is reduced to records, paid dues, and is thus remembered as a statistic. The tone in which the poem is told even feels like a monotone bureaucrat, which further suggests that overly conforming erases an individual’s individuality to the point of erasure. And while John is abandoned both by society and his friend, he grows happier with his deviation; however, the Unknown Citizen’s life and being is never acknowledged at all, there is nothing to abandon because his identity has been obliterated completely. However, both of the texts are able to show modernity’s penchant for measuring human worth through productivity and contribution to society; whether that be through a successful career or being an obedient citizen. We are shown the cost of resisting and choosing your own meaning of success paralleled with the emptiness, the lack of humanness itself in conforming without complaint. To conform or not to conform? That is the question that will shape how society perceives us or if we will even be perceived at all.
On AI use
We attest that this project did not use AI at any stage in its development or in the creation of any of its components.