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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 of whitewashed shacks, with black children sitting on doorsteps sucking their thumbs.
Then, you pass through the land of red clay hills, on which pine forests once stood. Now the trees are gone. The mills are gone. And the millowners have left, with their pockets full and with diamond rings on their fingers. On the land remain only the poor, unemployed \"hicks.\" You are entering Mason City.
NOTE: THE LANDSCAPE The landscape of All the King\'s Men is the most subtle \"character\" in the novel. It is poor in resources and economically stripped--a portrait of the Depression-era South, ravaged by industry and personal greed. To call the landscape a character may seem odd, but to narrator Jack Burden it is a living thing that forms the characters of men and women. And, in turn, the landscape is formed by men and women. This reciprocal process also occurs within the political structure of the state: Kingmakers form kings and kingmakers are formed by kings. Thus, the intertwining of the landscape\'s character and the human political character is a significant aspect of the story that Jack tells.
Key words to note in the descriptive opening passages are \"black\" and \"dazzle.\" Amid the black conditions of the times (\"black dirt,\" \"black smoke,\" \"blackstrap molasses,\" \"black skull and crossbones\"), Jack Burden is dazzled by the changes that are taking place. Also, notice the narrator\'s use of \"you\" in his attempt to make you, the reader, a part of his experience.
At this point Jack tells you he is remembering an event that happened three years ago in 1936. The Boss, Governor Willie Stark, has assembled an entourage to accompany him to his father\'s farmhouse in Mason City for family photographs. Driving the Boss\'s Cadillac is Sugar-Boy, a young, short, balding Irishman who eats sugar cubes, stutters, and carries a handgun. Also in the Cadillac are the Boss\'s son and wife, political lackey Tiny Duffy, and Jack. In the other car are the Boss\'s secretary, a photographer, and some reporters.
The party arrives in Mason City on a Saturday afternoon. An unusual feature of the town is the clock on the courthouse tower. It is not a real clock; its painted hands always point to five o\'clock. Could the interpretation be that time stands still in Mason City? How might time be said to stand still in this part of the rural South?
NOTE: TIME AND MEMORY Throughout All the King\'s Men the concept of time is enormously important. Jack Burden is trying to understand his present situation by looking into his own past and into the past of the major figures in his life. He is struggling to accept his past, so that he can go on with his life.
In order to portray the struggle within Jack\'s consciousness, Robert Penn Warren uses the narrator\'s memory of events to organize this tale. Thus, Warren does not employ a strict chronological sequence of events. Memory is spurred by associating one idea with another. One technique to simulate the way that memory works is the flashback. This novel has many flashbacks. Some are elaborate--that is, they tell a minor yet relevant story within the major story--and some are brief remembrances associated with the immediate story.
Willie walks into the drugstore. Suddenly, the crowd of people come alive, because Willie has been recognized. He grabs the hand of an old man, Malaciah, and asks how he\'s been doing. Malaciah tells him about his son, who has had some \"bad luck\" and is now in prison for stabbing someone. Meanwhile, the drugstore owner sets up the house with free colas. And all the people beg Willie to make a speech.
With his head slightly bowed, Willie walks outside and climbs to the top of the courthouse steps. Jack observes the Boss closely. He sees the bulge and glitter of Willie\'s eyes, which suggest the coming of something important. For Jack, the suspenseful moment before Willie speaks is as cold and clammy as the moment before opening a telegram. Why does Jack experience suspense in this moment? What is he waiting for?
Here, Jack reveals that he is something of a philosopher--that is, a person who seeks to understand the nature of human beings and their place in the universe. He shares a bit of his wisdom with the reader when he says: \"The end of man is knowledge, but there is one thing he can\'t do. He can\'t know whether knowledge will save him or kill him.\" Jack wants to acquire a certain kind of knowledge--self-knowledge. And part of what he wants to know about himself is why he is attracted to Willie. Is it possible that by understanding Willie Jack will understand himself? Why?
Willie tells the crowd of home folk that he is not going to make a speech. But make a speech he does--a speech about not making a speech, about not doing any \"politickin\'\" today. He says that he has come home to visit his pappy and to eat smokehouse sausage. What the Boss has to say doesn\'t matter to the crowd. They take pleasure simply in basking in his glow.
As the Cadillac leaves the town square, heading for the Stark homestead, it passes the schoolhouse. This building reminds Jack of the first time he met Willie. It was in 1922, during Prohibition times, in a speakeasy. Willie, in his capacity as Mason County Treasurer, was in the capital on business about a bond issue for a new schoolhouse.
NOTE: PROHIBITION In 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. It outlawed the sale and consumption of all intoxicating liquors. Supporters of Prohibition saw it as a means of cleansing Americans of sin and corruption. But during the \"Roaring Twenties,\" traditional \"Puritan morality\" was giving way to a new freedom. Many Americans turned their backs on efforts to legislate personal behavior. They flocked to \"speakeasies,\" illegal liquor establishments that were often ignored by law-enforcement agencies. Lax enforcement led to the growth of organized crime--the gangster Al Capone, for example, got his start in the illegal \"booze\" business. When the Depression created a need for more jobs, anti-Prohibitionists argued that the legalization of liquor would increase the market for grain. So, in 1933, Prohibition was repealed.
Jack ends his reminiscence of his first meeting with Willie by telling you that the bond issue passed, and that the new schoolhouse, now more than twelve years old, stands in Mason City. (The schoolhouse issue takes on greater significance in the next chapter.) Still in the speeding Cadillac, the Boss tells Jack to find a good lawyer to represent Malaciah\'s boy. Willie believes that the stabbing occurred during a fair fight. But, fair or not, without appearing to be involved, he wants the boy freed. This is a political matter, as are most things in the Boss\'s life.
The entourage pulls up to Pappy\'s two-story, unpainted farmhouse. The crepe myrtle are blooming, and chickens are wallowing in the dust under the magnolias. The house has not been painted, in order, no doubt, to remind people that Willie and his family are regular, poor country folk. But inside the house, out of the sight of passersby, modern plumbing and a new linoleum floor have been installed.
At the farmhouse, the photographer goes into action, taking pictures of Willie in various poses--with an old dog, with his family, in his childhood bedroom with an old schoolbook in his hands. Reporters take notes. And Jack imagines how the Boss must have been as a boy, freckled and serious, with a nameless feeling of something big inside of him.
Leaving the photography session, Jack walks past the stables, leans against a fence, and admires the sunset. After taking a swig of whiskey from his pocket flask, he hears a gate creak. Feeling that nothing is real, he thinks of himself as an idealist because of his ability to ignore the facts presented by his senses--in this case, the sound warning of another person\'s approach.
NOTE: IDEALISM The theory of idealism is that true reality lies in consciousness or reason, not in material objects. The most famous supporter of idealism was the British philosopher and theologian Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753). Berkeley claimed that there is no evidence to support the belief that anything \"outside the mind\" exists, with the notable exception of minds other than your own. Materialism, the belief that physical things are the only reality and that even the mind can be explained in terms of physical processes, is the doctrine opposed to idealism.
Jack says, \"If you are an Idealist it does not matter what you do or what goes on around you because it isn\'t real anyway.\" He seems to be seeking an escape from the brute facts of his life. But the curious thing about Jack\'s brand of idealism is that it does not seem consistent with the way he has been telling the story. He has gone to great lengths to describe the importance to the Boss of appearances--the secret hiring of a lawyer for Malaciah\'s son, Pappy\'s unpainted house, the family photographs. He has, in fact, relied heavily on descriptions of physical things--places, people, events--in the tale so far. Why, then, does he suddenly want to deny the reality of his surroundings?
When a voice asks for a slug of his whiskey, Jack realizes that the Boss has been leaning on the fence with him. The gate creaks again. This time it is the Boss\'s secretary, Sadie Burke. She interrupts the peacefulness of dusk by announcing that Judge Irwin has endorsed a candidate for the Senate who is not the Boss\'s pick. Clearly disturbed by the news, Willie changes his plans. No quiet sitting around the homestead tonight. With Sugar-Boy driving and Jack in tow, the Boss heads for Judge Irwin\'s home in Burden\'s Landing, a bay shore town one hundred thirty miles away.
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