Faceless Societies
Faceless SocietiesAs indicated by “Self-Reliance,” an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.” Emerson points out that as society works to rid men of their “manhood,” man’s sense of distinctiveness. In isolation, every man has the freedom to think on his own; therefore, being an individual person. Adhering to the norms of society destroyed their freedom; thus, causing a faceless society of conformists. Consequently, an assortment of contemporary British poets cogitated on the fact that society became increasingly lackluster as the demise of distinctiveness among its citizens increased due to conformity.
By losing the individuality that one holds, one is deprived of his identity. “The Unknown Citizen,” by W.H. Auden, exemplified the notion that blind agreement of the ethics of society brings about identity loss. The poem indicated that He, the nameless citizen, had conformed to the values and beliefs of his society, “For in everything he did he served the Greater Community” (Auden 883). By abiding by the morals of his society, He could no longer be a libertine and entrust in his own values. He must curb his mind to the ideals of the “Greater Community” and nobody will be capable of discriminating him from the other members of the population. Individuality is a distinguishing characteristic of humans and without this sense of uniqueness, one is another person in the crowd. T.S. Elliot applied this concept best in “The Hollow Men,” where he described the men as, “Shape without form, shade without color,” (Elliot 707). Eliot described the conformed men through a personification of Shape. Any shape is visible, yet it lack the qualities, color and form, that make it unique. The men are physically present, yet they lack the individual thought that made each one distinct. The men had lost their human traits, had developed into a monotonous society, and lacked the facility to be a detached person.
As people diverged from seclusion and adhered to conventionalism, an intensified society of sightless nomads materialized....
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