-
Since college Jack has been in love with Anne. The two grew up together and planned to be married. But when Jack actually got around to proposing, Anne put him off. She was waiting for him to find direction--a career or a social cause or whatever her \"Jackie-Bird\" wanted to do. Jack, however, had no ambitions. Thus, in contrast to Anne\'s highly respected father, Governor Stanton, and to her brother, Adam, the famous surgeon, Jack was a poor ... mehr
-
A product of Southern aristocracy, Adam is proud of his heritage, even driven to live up to its ideals, as embodied by his father, Governor Stanton. Like Willie, he is committed to doing good for people, A famous surgeon, he works tirelessly, often without pay, to provide the people with excellent health care. He is striving to achieve the same ends as Willie, but their views on how to get things done clash. Adam thinks in terms of honorable tr ... mehr
-
Jack impersonally refers to Ellis Burden, who he thought was his father, as the Scholarly Attorney. When Jack was six, the Scholarly Attorney left his luxurious home, his lucrative law practice, and his attractive wife. He went to the capital city to write religious pamphlets and to help the \"unfortunates.\" Jack never understood Burden\'s desertion. Many years later, after Judge Irwin\'s death, Jack discovers the reason: The Scholarly Attorne ... mehr
-
Sam MacMurfee, a powerful politician, is Willie\'s archenemy. He is often mentioned, but never makes an appearance in the novel. Why do you think he is never shown in a face-to-face confrontation with Willie? What reasons could Jack Burden, the narrator, have for not showing MacMurfee in action?
... mehr
-
Cass Mastern appears as part of a story within the story. While a college student, Cass had an affair with the wife of his best friend, Duncan Trice. When Duncan found out, he killed himself. Hence, Cass spent the rest of his life trying to atone for his intense feelings of guilt. As a Confederate soldier in the Civil War, Cass sought death. Finally, a bullet found him. Cass\'s story was to be the subject of the Ph.D. dissertation that Jack nev ... mehr
-
Robert Penn Warren began Proud Flesh, the unpublished verse drama that became All the King\'s Men, in Italy during the days preceding World War II. Mussolini, Italy\'s Fascist dictator, regularly marched his black-shirted thugs through the cobbled streets of Rome. Warren saw this display of force and was reminded of Louisiana governor Huey Long\'s private army, called \"Huey\'s Cossacks,\" composed of members of the National Guard and the highw ... mehr
-
One mark of an outstanding novel is its power to stimulate a variety of interpretations. All the King\'s Men has generated many interpretations because it offers a wide scope of thematic questions, from politics to psychology, from philosophy to religion.
1. POWER AND CORRUPTION
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king\'s horses and all the king\'s men
Couldn\'t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
... mehr
-
When discussing an author\'s style, you are referring to the distinctive way in which the writer uses language to tell a story or to express ideas. In All the King\'s Men, Warren brings together images of the real world and ideas he has fashioned from experience, and through the voice of Jack Burden he weaves these elements of style into a conversation with you. In general, then, the style of the novel is conversational, yet at times, as you\'l ... mehr
-
Jack Burden is both the narrator and the central character of All the King\'s Men. He tells you about his experiences and shares his reactions to, and reflections on, these events. Thus, the point of view of almost all of All the King\'s Men is first-person subjective. Jack\'s biting wit, detached attitude, and suppressed passion are evident throughout the story. He is keenly alert, and, as he tells you, he is a trained historian and an experie ... mehr
-
Robert Penn Warren\'s fascination with the concept of time is reflected in the structure of All the King\'s Men, which moves forward in time and backward in memory. And through the use of flashbacks, Warren seeks to show that past, present, and future are bound up with one another in the web of life. The flashback, then, is the distinctive feature of the novel\'s structure. Yet, Warren\'s frequent use of flashbacks--even flashbacks within flash ... mehr
-
1850s Cass Mastern\'s college days and romance with Annabelle.
1860s Cass\'s death from a Civil War wound.
1914 Foreclosure proceedings on Judge Irwin\'s plantation;
Judge\'s marriage and mortgage payment in full; Jack, Anne,
and Adam\'s youth in Burden\'s Landing.
1918 Anne and Jack\'s romance begins.
1920-21 Jack\'s graduate studies in history and his marriage to
Lois.
1922 Willi ... mehr
-
All the King\'s Men has a complex structure, and the relationships among events can be difficult to grasp at the first reading. To clarify the structure, the following discussion divides most chapters into sections. The title of each section refers to the main topic of the section.
... mehr
-
Jack Burden begins his story by taking you on a trip from the capital in the southern part of an unnamed state to Mason City, the home of Governor Willie Stark, in the northern part. It\'s a dazzling, hot day. You pass through the flat country where blacks are working the cotton fields. In the distance you see clumps of live oaks, among which the big houses of the landowners are safely hidden. On the sides of the new blacktop highway are rows o ... mehr
-
Jack Burden, as you may have guessed, is related to the people for whom Burden\'s Landing is named. It was here that he was born and raised. Jack warns the Boss that Judge Irwin will not be easy to frighten. Jack knows. The Judge was like a father to him as he was growing up on the prestigious Row--the drive facing the bay--of Burden\'s Landing.
As Jack directs Sugar-Boy to the Judge\'s house at the end of the Row, he thinks about his childh ... mehr
-
This chapter is the story of Willie Stark\'s rise to power and the role Jack Burden plays in it. The story begins in 1922, a few months after Jack first met Willie. At the time, Jack is a reporter for the capital city Chronicle. His managing editor tells him that there seems to be a battle going on in the Mason County courthouse--\"that fellow Stark\" against the local political machine. The battle concerns the bids for building the new schoolh ... mehr
-
Willie is a lawyer now. And although he remains gullible and politically naive, he has a more cynical attitude toward life than he did before he lost the county treasurer election. For example, he studied long and hard for the bar examination, but when he took the exam, he burst out laughing about the simplicity of \"those crappy little questions.\"
Willie\'s reaction is not unusual for someone who has spent a long time working toward what s ... mehr
-
In 1930, while Willie is running his own campaign for Governor, Jack quits his job at the Chronicle. The paper is backing incumbent MacMurfee, but Jack\'s column does not reflect the editor\'s position. Jack leaves and thus begins the \"Great Sleep.\"
Jack describes the Great Sleep as \"dreaming of sleep, sleeping and dreaming of sleep infinitely inward to the center.\" Aimlessness, emptiness, and nothing are the order of the day, every day. ... mehr
-
It is 1933 and Jack, now a research aide to Governor Stark, has come home to Burden\'s Landing for a visit with his mother. He is reluctant to see her, knowing that his visit will end in argument. Nevertheless, he finds her charm irresistible and takes comfort in her affection. For instance, as he rests his head on her lap, she strokes his forehead and expresses concern over how tired he looks. His feelings toward his mother are ambivalent, but ... mehr
-
Things are popping in the capital. One of Willie\'s appointees, State Auditor Byram White, is being threatened with impeachment. The MacMurfee bunch, wanting to regain their old political influence, have accused White of graft. White is indeed guilty and the Boss knows it, but he doesn\'t fire White. Instead, he scolds him harshly and enjoys watching him grovel. White doesn\'t have the courage or integrity to resign. When Jack asks why the Boss ... mehr
-
In this chapter Jack tells you about the twists and turns of his second journey into the past. His assignment is to discover something scandalous about Judge Irwin. And he does. Jack is an excellent researcher--perhaps too good.
NOTE: Warren immediately follows the story of Jack\'s first piece of historical research--the Cass Mastern case--with the story of his second project, the \"Case of the Upright Judge.\" The purpose for putting these ... mehr
|
