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| Penn, Robert: All the kings men
Penn, Robert: All the kings men
BARRON`S BOOK NOTES
ROBERT PENN WARREN`S
ALL THE KING`S MEN
^^^^^^^^^^ROBERT PENN WARREN: THE AUTHOR AND HIS
TIMES
Huey P. Long, known as "The Kingfish," controlled
Louisiana politics for some ten years, until he was assassinated in 1935. He was
the law, he was above the law--he ruled with the force of royalty through an
effective political machine while serving as governor of the state (1928-31) and
U.S. Senator (1931-35). But just as Humpty Dumpty in the nursery rhyme toppled
off his perch, so did Robert Penn Warren`s fictionalized Huey Long, Willie Stark
in All the King`s Men. Willie sat high on a wall, but had a great fall--and as
you read Warren`s novel you will understand why all the king`s horses and all
the king`s men couldn`t put Willie together again.
On one level, then, All the King`s Men is the study of
the rise and fall of a political dictator in the southern United States. On
another level, it is the study of a man`s journey toward self-knowledge along
the winding and difficult paths that emerge from the past. Many elements of
Warren`s own past went into making this novel. And although the novel explores
age-old philosophical ideas, the ideas are not stale or moldy. They come alive
because Warren grounds them in his own experience and in vivid characters who
flourish and perish in a particular landscape--the American
South.
Warren was born in 1905 in the tobacco country of
Guthrie, Kentucky, the eldest son of a businessman and a schoolteacher.
Political violence was a part of his earliest memories, The Kentucky tobacco
wars of 1905 to 1908 raged in the surrounding areas. Many tobacco growers
organized themselves against the big buyers, often riding into the night to
terrorize other growers who were unsympathetic to their crusade for better
prices. These events provided the background for Warren`s first published novel,
Night Rider (1939).
Poetry and history were also a part of Warren`s
childhood. His maternal grandfather, a Confederate cavalry officer in the Civil
War, frequently quoted poetry to Warren and introduced him to Southern history.
As a boy, Warren developed an allegiance to the South, a sense of history, and a
love for literature. He read widely, from the great biologist Charles Darwin to
detective stories, from Boy Scout manuals to American history
books.
At sixteen, Warren entered Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, Tennessee, intending to become a chemical engineer. But while taking
a freshman English course with the famous poet John Crowe Ransom, he turned
toward a career in literature. As an undergraduate, Warren helped edit The
Fugitive--a literary journal named for the image of the wandering outcast--and
in it he published his first poems. The group--particularly John Crowe Ransom,
Donald G. Davidson, Allen Tate, and Warren--are credited with originating a
Southern literary renaissance. They wrote poetry and ushered in a new movement
of literary criticism, named the New Criticism by Ransom. As witnesses to the
rapid industrialization of the South by Northern industries, the Fugitives
feared that technology would strip nature, as well as humanity, of its sensuous
and contemplative qualities. Through their poetry they expressed their belief in
a return to reverence for land and for human experience. For the New Critics,
however, the poem was more than a means of expression; it had a mystical
authority of its own, separate from the poet`s intentions or the reader`s
interpretation.
By 1925, when Warren graduated from Vanderbilt with
highest honors, the Fugitives were going their separate ways, pursuing
individual interests. Warren left the South to study literature as a graduate
student first at the University of California at Berkeley, then at Yale
University, and finally at Oxford University in England as a Rhodes scholar.
While at Oxford, Warren published his first book, a biography called John Brown:
The Making of a Martyr (1929), about the well-known abolitionist John
Brown.
Meanwhile, several Fugitives adopted a more political
position on social change and literature. They wanted to do something to stop
nationwide industrialization and to show the entire country the importance of
clinging to such traditional Southern values as devotion to the soil. A new
group was formed--the Agrarians. Warren shared their antitechnological views and
joined them in publishing a controversial book called I`ll Take My Stand (1930).
Warren`s contribution, "The Briar Patch," argues that unless the Southern
agricultural tradition is reinforced, blacks will continue to defect to their
dream of the good life in the industrial North, which Warren believed brought
them misery. Much later, in Segregation (1956), Warren modified his position and
talked about the vast potential of blacks in American society. After their
attempt at social criticism in I`ll Take My Stand, Warren and the other
Agrarians abandoned social reform and sought expression in
literature.
In 1931, Warren returned to Vanderbilt as an assistant
professor of English. There, during the depths of the Great Depression, the idea
for All the King`s Men began taking form. Warren saw how Tennessee, like the
entire nation, was suffering from a devastated economy. He saw incredible
poverty. He saw lives disrupted by political corruption and greed. And while
witnessing this pervasive social and political melodrama, he experienced a
misfortune of his own: The universities were cutting down on personnel, and he
was let go by Vanderbilt. Louisiana, on the other hand, was expanding its
educational system under the leadership of Senator Long. In September 1934,
Warren left his Tennessee farm and drove to Baton Rouge to begin a new job as
English professor at Louisiana State University. On the way he picked up a
hitchhiker, a scruffy old fellow who told him about the miracles that Huey Long
had wrought in Louisiana. Long had built toll-free highways and new hospitals
and had provided public-school children with free textbooks. The senator, who
came from a background of poverty, wanted to help the impoverished people of the
state, but he often used bribery and blackmail, as well as rigged elections, to
achieve his ends. He was loved by the poor, illiterate masses and despised by
the wealthy, educated elite. From the hitchhiker`s recital and from the hundreds
of tales he heard later, Warren realized that the different accounts of Huey
Long`s use of power addressed a continuing problem--the conflict between the
high-minded ideals of the wealthy class and the realistic demands of the
poor.
While Warren was teaching literature and creative
writing in Louisiana, he developed the idea for a story about a Southern
demagogue, a leader who plays on the fears and prejudices of the people to gain
power. Warren had no personal contact with Long, although Long`s daughter, Rose,
was in one of Warren`s Shakespeare courses. In the same course, Warren lectured
on the political background to Shakespeare`s Julius Caesar. During the two weeks
he spent on this play, he thought about the ageless question of power and ethics
and about the parallels between Caesar and Long. Both men were ambitious, vain,
and arrogant; yet, they seemed to be the only leaders strong enough to hold
their people together in times of strife. Apparently, the students also saw the
similarities, because, as Warren noted, they were unusually attentive.
Strangely, a little after the course ended, Huey Long, like Caesar, was
assassinated. But, as you shall see, All the King`s Men is more than a
fictionalized presentation of a dictator. The author`s major concern is with
moral conflicts and their resolution.
Warren has said that Long was not the sole inspiration
for All the King`s Men. Even before he moved to Louisiana, he was intrigued by
power struggles in the South. Warren`s interests also included ancient and
modern writings on political philosophy. And the career of Benito Mussolini, the
Italian dictator who held power from 1922 to 1943 and was allied with the German
dictator Adolf Hitler in World War II, especially fascinated
him.
In 1936, a year after Long`s assassination, Warren began
planning a play about a politician corrupted by the very evil he sets out to
eliminate. With funds provided by a Guggenheim fellowship, he went to Italy
where, in the summer of 1938, he began to write the verse drama Proud Flesh.
Thus, in Mussolini`s Italy, Warren wrote about Governor Willie Talos, who became
Willie Stark in All the King`s Men.
Warren`s play was not performed or published for many
years. He put it aside until 1943, when he was teaching at the University of
Minnesota. That year he published his second novel, At Heaven`s Gate, which also
dealt with the themes of self-knowledge, responsibility, and spiritual
emptiness. After rereading Proud Flesh, he decided that a novel was a better
vehicle for his characters and ideas than a verse drama. But he didn`t know from
whose point of view to present the story. In the play, he had employed a chorus
of surgeons to help the audience see Willie`s tragic story from a detached
perspective. In the novel, he eliminated the chorus and used Jack Burden as the
narrator of Willie`s life. As such, you do not get inside Willie`s head.
Willie`s experiences are filtered through the observations and emotions of one
of his men. This story-telling strategy imitates the way that Warren actually
came to know Long--never personally, always through the perceptions of
others.
All the King`s Men, Warren`s third novel, was published
in 1946. The following year it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The film
version appeared in 1949 and received the Academy Award for best movie of the
year. Eventually, Proud Flesh became a theatrical production. It was staged
off-Broadway in 1959 and the next year was published under the title All the
King`s Men: A Play. And in 1981 the novel was the source for Carlisle Floyd`s
music drama Willie Stark.
After All the King`s Men, Warren wrote a number of
additional novels, including the ambitious Southern novel World Enough and Time
(1950). He also wrote many short stories and put together several distinguished
collections of poetry. His poetry collection, Promises (1957), won the Pulitzer
Prize for poetry in 1958. Nevertheless, All the King`s Men remains his
best-known work. Indeed, its universal themes and its skillful and powerful use
of language have made it an American classic and have led the influential critic
Malcolm Cowley to call Warren "more richly endowed than any other American
novelist born in the present century."
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: THE PLOT
Willie Stark, a young politician in an impoverished area
of an unidentified Southern state, suddenly rises to prominence as a result of a
local tragedy. He had previously warned everyone that the contractor for the new
schoolhouse had a reputation for using inferior bricks. But no one listened.
Now, the building had collapsed, killing three children. Willie`s unwavering
conviction that the local politicians were in collusion with the contractor
gains him statewide publicity.
Eventually, Willie Stark is chosen to run for governor.
However, he doesn`t realize that the bosses are using him as a dummy candidate
to split the rural vote. When he finds out, his rage overcomes his
disillusionment. He is angry not only because he has been played for a fool but
also because the state`s poor people have been deceived. In a high-spirited,
emotionally charged speech he tells the people that all "hicks," including
himself, are the politicians` dummies. The crowd loves his speech. But Willie
resigns from the race and energetically campaigns against the candidate of the
people who fooled him. In the process, he makes a name for himself. Four years
later, Willie is elected governor.
Jack Burden, a young reporter for the capital city`s
newspaper, has closely followed Willie`s rise to power. He finds much to admire
in the dynamic politician. Shortly after Willie moves into the governor`s
mansion, Jack begins working as one of Willie`s aides. Jack is a trained
historian, and Willie therefore assigns him research tasks. Jack`s main job is
to discover scandalous evidence against Willie`s political
enemies.
Unlike Willie, Jack grew up in a well-to-do,
aristocratic community. One of the outstanding members of the community is Judge
Irwin, a longtime friend of Jack`s. When the Judge defies Willie on a political
matter, Jack is assigned to dig up some dirt that will ruin the Judge`s
reputation. Jack hesitates because the Judge has always been like a father to
him. But then he decides that the task is simply another piece of historical
research. Besides, the Judge has a sterling reputation, which surely no amount
of research can smear. Willie knows better; every person, he believes, is
harboring some secret sin, and the Judge is no exception. Indeed, after seven
months of research, Jack does uncover a scandal in the Judge`s past. The scandal
involves not only the Judge but also the former governor, Joel Stanton, the
deceased father of Jack`s best friends, Adam and Anne Stanton.
Jack hopes that he is never forced to use his
information. But the old scandal becomes known to the Stantons when Jack has to
convince Adam, a famous surgeon and a man of high ideals, to become director of
Willie`s new hospital. The hospital is Willie`s grand plan for helping the poor
people and for ensuring his own immortality. Adam does not want to become
involved in Willie`s corrupt administration. But when he discovers that his
father was involved in a serious political scandal, he compromises his ideals
and agrees to direct Willie`s hospital. Adam`s sister, Anne, also compromises
her ideals upon learning of her father`s indiscretion and becomes Willie`s
mistress. Jack, who has loved Anne since she was a teenager, feels betrayed, but
he realizes that, in part, he is responsible for Anne`s
actions.
Meanwhile, Willie`s administration becomes more and more
corrupt. Yet, Willie holds on to one idealistic dream: He refuses to let his
hospital be tainted by political wheeling and dealing. But fate takes another
complex turn. Sam MacMurfee, Willie`s most powerful political enemy, has
discovered that Tom, Willie`s son, may soon be the father of an illegitimate
child. MacMurfee threatens to make the knowledge public, with a paternity suit
against Tom, if Willie persists in thinking about running for the U.S. Senate.
After several strategies for squelching the paternity suit fail, Willie
remembers the research he asked Jack to do on Judge Irwin. The Judge has the
power to make MacMurfee withdraw his threat. Willie, therefore, orders Jack to
blackmail the Judge into helping Willie out of his dilemma. Jack tells the Judge
that the old scandal will become known if he does not cooperate. Rather than
submit to a blackmail attempt, the Judge, a man of honor, kills himself. In the
commotion following the Judge`s suicide, Jack discovers that the Judge was his
real father. Suddenly, Jack, the detached historical researcher, must confront
the truth of his own identity.
With the Judge dead, only one strategy remains for
stopping the paternity suit. Gummy Larson, a building contractor and a powerful
friend of MacMurfee`s, has been wanting the hospital contract for a long time.
Willie agrees to give Larson the job if Larson persuades MacMurfee to back
off.
The deal is arranged, and all seems well until Willie`s
son is paralyzed in a football accident. The crippling of his only child causes
Willie to reexamine his life. He cancels the hospital contract, a decision that
angers the lieutenant-governor, Tiny Duffy, who had set up the deal in the first
place. In retaliation, Tiny tells Adam that he was appointed hospital director
because his sister, Anne, is Willie`s mistress. Outraged, Adam shoots Willie,
seriously wounding him, and is immediately killed by Willie`s bodyguard. A few
days later, Willies dies.
After this series of tragedies, Jack tries to make sense
of his life. He marries Anne and begins writing a biography, not of Willie Stark
but of a man whose own tragic experiences during the Civil War era reflect
Jack`s personal sense of responsibility to history.
All the King`s Men has two major characters, Willie
Stark and Jack Burden. By understanding their circumstances and motivations, you
will grasp the ideas about human nature that Robert Penn Warren offers. But
unless you also look into the personalities and motivations of the minor
characters--those who surround Willie and Jack and insist on making themselves
felt--the story will not come alive for you. Life, as Robert Penn Warren shows
you, can be a tangled web of relationships among a large cast of characters; it
is a continuing experience, in which historical events influence present
circumstances.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: WILLIE
STARK
Is Willie Stark the people`s messiah or a dangerous
dictator, a tragic hero or a smooth-tongued tyrant? Does he deserve to be
assassinated? How you answer these questions will, in part, influence the
meaning that the novel holds for you. And how you answer may also say as much
about you as it says about Willie. Do you prefer to put fictional characters
into the neat categories of hero and villain? Or do you prefer to see portrayals
of life with a double vision, aware that some people are both good and bad? To
understand Willie`s character, you need to use your powers of double vision. The
internal conflicts of his personality do not readily permit you to pass a quick
verdict on his life. You will probably discover that Willie, like many powerful
leaders, combines opposing elements, often resorting to foul means to achieve
good ends.
Willie Stark is an imaginary character, inspired by an
actual historical figure Huey Pierce Long, governor of Louisiana from 1928 to
1931 and then a U.S. Senator until his assassination in 1935. Some readers have
commented that Willie Stark resembles Huey Long too closely. Without a doubt,
Long`s political career parallels the career that Robert Penn Warren designs for
Willie. Both Long and Willie came from a poor Southern background and, through
ambitious perseverance, became lawyers. Both held political office at an early
age, and each had an unsuccessful first run for governor. As governors, both
were charged with bribery and the misuse of state funds and threatened with
impeachment. Nevertheless, each had a lifelong passion to improve the lot of his
state`s poor. By using blackmail and patronage, they financed roads and
hospitals and reworked the state`s tax structure in favor of the poor people.
Finally, each met his death at the hands of a doctor who had a personal
grievance against him.
Warren obviously had Huey Long in mind while
constructing his novel. Yet, despite the uncanny similarities between these men,
the story of Willie Stark is not merely the story of Huey Long. All the King`s
Men is not a fictional biography. Rather, Long`s public career can be seen as
the skeletal outline to which Warren adds flesh and into which he then breathes
the life of a dynamic, complex personality who engages the reader`s
imagination.
In a sense, Willie is every man who rises to power by
offering to save the people from their distress and who, during his struggles,
becomes corrupted by power. Some, therefore, see him as a stereotype, the
character of good intentions who becomes tainted by the system. But you may
appreciate Willie, first and foremost, as a human being who has dreams, a family
he loves, and passions he yields to, among them a desire for power. Warren
doesn`t just present a character who functions in a concrete political setting;
he shows you a man torn between his visions of an ideal society and stark
reality--what it takes in the real world to fulfill one`s dreams. Willie`s last
name gives you a clue to his main way of dealing with power and conflict. He
sacrifices his ideals for action. He is a man of stark fact, and he wants
results. In the end, Willie reevaluates his life`s goals. But it is too late for
change. Willie, like his many actual and fictional counterparts, is not given a
second chance.
Warren`s portrayal of Willie raises the following
questions: What psychological toll does the person with a deeply rooted
political mission pay? Do the means of accomplishing the mission justify the
ends? Can a well-intentioned man who becomes politically corrupt be a hero of
the reader`s imagination?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: JACK
BURDEN
Jack Burden is the narrator of All the King`s Men. He is
supposedly telling Willie`s story. Yet, you will begin to sense, after reading
several chapters, that Jack is using Willie`s story as a vehicle for clarifying
the meaning of his own life. Warren says that he chose Jack as the narrator
because he is one of the empty, powerless people who need a character like
Willie to bring them to life. Also, because Jack is intelligent and perceptive,
he is the best one to tell Willie`s story. But still this does not explain why
Jack becomes the central character, the most complex character and the one who
undergoes the most changes. Why does Jack dominate the novel? Why is he
embedding his own story inside of Willie`s? Jack, like most people, is not easy
to understand. Nevertheless, by examining several facets of his character, you
can glean some insights into his motivations.
In contrast to Willie, who has a well-defined goal--to
do good for the poor folk--Jack drifts without direction. He is a keen observer
of the meaning that other people give to their lives. For instance, he knows
that Willie`s wife, Lucy, finds satisfaction in family life, and that Willie`s
secretary, Sadie, seeks fulfillment by subordinating her talents to the careers
of powerful men. But Jack sees no meaning in his own existence. Why does such an
intelligent, articulate man lack purpose? Does the cause stem from his
childhood, from having been abandoned by his father and then having to compete
with a series of stepfathers for his mother`s affection? Was he spoiled by the
luxuries of his aristocratic upbringing? Is he disillusioned because his love
life has not come up to his expectations?
But Jack does have a love life, although, until the
novel`s end, it is no more than memories and fantasies. He still loves his
childhood friend, Anne Stanton. The only goal he ever had, it seems, was to
marry Anne. Thus, a second aspect of Jack`s character to consider is his deep
attachment to Anne. What is it about Anne that causes him to be obsessed with
her? Or, looking at it from another angle, what does his memory of her do for
him that no real woman can do? His failed marriage to Lois Seager was based on
sex, not love. And since his divorce, he has not established any meaningful
relationships with women, except perhaps with Lucy Stark. Jack admires Lucy`s
devotion to her family and her strength of character. But he pays more attention
to her appearance than to her personality or character. On each visit to Lucy`s
farm, he describes in detail her hair, clothing, and furniture.
A third facet of Jack`s character, then, is his
inability to become emotionally involved--with women, with friends, or with a
career. When Jack was in graduate school studying American history, he was on
the verge of becoming involved in the life of a man, Cass Mastern, who had died
in the Civil War and whose motivations perplexed him. His Ph.D. project was to
write a historical account of Mastern. But he walked away from the project and
never received his doctorate. As an aide to Willie Stark, he completed an
extensive research project--finding a scandalous incident in Judge Irwin`s
past--and refused to let his friendship for the Judge obstruct his objectivity.
"Emotions begone! Truth to the fore!" seemed to be his guiding principle. How
could Jack be so detached from his own professional possibilities in graduate
school and from his feelings of friendship for the Judge during his
research?
Jack, as you`ll see, becomes a tireless researcher when
he begins to work for Willie; he doesn`t let go of a project until he has
discovered the truth--regardless of how ugly it may be--of a person`s past. As
such, a fourth facet to note is his attitude toward history and truth. Jack
Burden carries with him the burden of history, and while rejecting his own past,
he takes refuge in investigations into the pasts of other people. Nevertheless,
he has no more than a dim notion--at least until the end--of why history is
important. The technical aspects of historical research fascinate him and, at
the same time, help him to avoid confronting his own lack of personal historical
consciousness. Why does Jack do Willie`s bidding? Why is he interested in the
phenomenon of Willie Stark? When does he realize his own vital significance in
the flow of history?
Finally, you should consider the question of
self-knowledge in trying to understand Jack. Some readers believe that the quest
for self-knowledge is subordinate to, and supportive of, all other facets of
Jack`s character. Such periodic episodes as the "Great Sleep" and the comfort he
takes in the mechanistic theory of the "Great Twitch" reveal that Jack is
escaping from reality. In a sense, he is a modern-day Rip Van Winkle, who lets
the world around him change while he waits and hopes for his life to fall in
step with the times. Jack doesn`t actively seek self-knowledge. The changes in
his attitude, in his willingness to get involved and to accept responsibility,
appear to result from events outside of his control. Or do they? Is Jack an
active seeker of self-knowledge or a fortunate man who comes by it through no
effort of his own?
These, then, are some aspects of Jack to consider while
attempting to understand him. Other facets of his character will emerge as the
novel unfolds.
The following characters are discussed in order of
appearance in All the King`s Men.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SUGAR-BOY
O`SHEEAN
Sugar-Boy, a sugar cube-eating Irishman, is the first
character you meet. He is Willie`s driver and bodyguard. He can drive a Cadillac
with great speed and agility, and he`s a deadly accurate target shooter. Beyond
that, he stutters, appears to be mentally retarded, and is dominated by one
emotion--intense loyalty to Willie.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: TINY
DUFFY
When you first meet Tiny Duffy, he is Willie Stark`s
lieutenant governor, the second in command of the state. Later you discover that
he was one of the men who deceived Willie during Willie`s first campaign for
governor. Willie, however, wooed Tiny away from another political camp and made
Tiny his chief lackey. Tiny has no loyalty to any political faction--he seeks
his own selfish interests and will grovel, if that`s what it takes, to maintain
a position in state government. But Tiny should not be underestimated; he is a
dangerous man. So, like Jack, you may wonder why Willie has raised Tiny to such
a powerful place in state politics.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: LUCY
STARK
Most of all Lucy, Willie`s wife, wants to be a good
mother and a good wife. She supports Willie`s political ambitions but appears
uncomfortable in the role of governor`s wife. When she can no longer tolerate
seeing what politics has done to Willie and what football stardom has done to
their son, she returns to farm life, leaving Willie to his political and sexual
intrigues. Yet, she doesn`t divorce Willie. Like most other Southern women of
her generation, she is devoted to the soil, to the family, and to tradition. But
this in itself doesn`t explain her loyalty to Willie. She loved him deeply when
he was only a county politician. Does she love him later or does she merely love
the memory of their good times together?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: TOM STARK
Willie adores Tom, his only child. But his love blinds
him. Unlike Lucy, he doesn`t see that Tom is becoming an unbearably arrogant
young man. Once Tom becomes the star quarterback of the state university
football team, he cannot stay out of trouble. His father, however, always comes
to his aid. By refusing to discipline Tom, Willie widens the rift between Lucy
and himself. Finally, one of Tom`s sexual escapades requires Willie to put his
reputation and power on the line. Still, Willie doesn`t blame him; after all, he
says, Tom is just a boy.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SADIE
BURKE
Sadie is always in love with politicians who never marry
her. She came from the wrong side of the tracks and will never let anyone forget
it. She can curse as well as anyone, and, all in all, she puts on a good show.
But behind the mask of a tough, no-nonsense career woman, she desperately wants
someone to love her, and for most of the novel she wants that someone to be
Willie. She is both Willie`s personal secretary and his mistress. With a keen
business sense and a quick wit, she comes across as unfeminine and coarse.
Consider the ways in which Sadie is similar to, and different from, Anne Stanton
and Lucy.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: JUDGE
IRWIN
When Jack was growing up, Judge Irwin lived down the
street and taught the boy to ride, shoot, and hunt. As Jack says, the Judge was
like a father to him. Why, then, as an adult working for Governor Stark, does
Jack pursue his research into the Judge`s past? How can he betray a lifelong
friend? Unlike Jack, the Judge is unswervingly loyal to friends and to
tradition. A brilliant man, he has had a distinguished political career--except
for one serious indiscretion, the scandal that Jack discovers in the Judge`s
past. Even when faced with exposure, Judge Irwin does not sacrifice his
integrity and self-esteem. After courageously refusing to let Willie blackmail
him, he shoots himself.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: JACK`S
MOTHER
Whenever Jack visits his mother, he is torn between
enjoying her attention to him and experiencing hostility toward her. Some
readers believe that Jack`s ambivalent feelings for his mother are indicative of
an Oedipus complex, the unconscious desire of a son to be attached to his
mother. When Ellis Burden abandoned six-year-old Jack and his mother, Jack
concentrated all his affections on his mother. But she remarried, bringing first
one stepfather into the house, then another. Jack had to share his mother`s love
with strangers. The resulting resentments, according to psychiatrists, could
cause deep-seated emotional conflicts toward one`s mother as well as toward all
women. Does this theory help to explain Jack`s emotional detachment or his
love-hate relationship to his mother? Or could it be that his mother`s
materialistic nature and lack of commitment to marriage are responsible for
Jack`s behavior toward her?
Jack`s mother is not given a name, yet she remains a
fascinating character. Despite her apparent fickleness, when she realizes that
Jack`s natural father, Judge Irwin, has been her only true love, she becomes the
ultimate source for Jack`s reentry into the rich stream of
life.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: ANNE
STANTON
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 marriage
risk. What do Anne`s expectations in a husband reveal about her
character?
When you first meet Anne, she is an unmarried woman
approaching middle age, a volunteer charity worker. Her life seems empty, and
she relies upon the traditions of her aristocratic upbringing to give her
support. Jack still regards her as an unblemished, highly desirable woman; he is
fascinated by her graceful movements and her "woman`s laugh"--until he learns
she has become Willie`s mistress. He can`t understand her actions and blames
himself. Why has Anne gravitated toward Willie? What does Willie do for her that
Jack can`t?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: ADAM
STANTON
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 traditions; Willie thinks in terms of manipulating
people.
Ironically, each man`s strength is also his fatal
weakness. Willie`s ideal of economic well-being can be accomplished, he
believes, only by using bad practices to get good results, at least to get them
quickly. And he`ll do whatever it takes to get Adam as director of his hospital.
But he lets Anne and Jack do the dirty work. When Anne confronts Adam with his
father`s role in Judge Irwin`s scandal, his ideals are shattered. He agrees to
direct the hospital. Does he do so as some kind of atonement (payment) for his
father`s sin? Does the revelation weaken his resistance to being employed by a
corrupt politician? Or has he all along wanted to have the power, as well as the
vast opportunity to do good, that the directorship brings?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: ELLIS
BURDEN
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 Attorney was
not his natural father. Jack was conceived during an affair between the Judge
and his mother. After this revelation, Jack`s view of the Scholarly Attorney as
a weak man is reinforced. Nevertheless, Jack acknowledges the man`s sensitivity
and compassion.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SAM
MACMURFEE
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?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: CASS
MASTERN
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 never wrote.
Some readers view the Cass Mastern story in Chapter 4 as
an unnecessary digression in the novel. Others, however, see Cass as a major
figure and compare him with other characters--for instance, with Willie and the
Scholarly Attorney and even with Adam Stanton and Judge Irwin. Is Jack`s
inability to understand Cass`s sense of guilt a symptom of Jack`s withdrawal
from human involvement? Why do you think the novel ends with Jack`s writing a
book on Cass Mastern?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SETTING
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 highway
police. Impressed by both these leaders` rise to, and adept use of, power, he
sought to explore how and why a person obtains power. In particular, he was
intrigued by the roles that time and geography play in the creation of such
leaders, who rely on strong-arm tactics to acquire and hold on to power. But
Warren didn`t write about Italian politics; he set his story in the place he
knew best, the southern region of the United States.
During the years after the Civil War and through the
1930s, parts of the southern United States were so poor that many people lived
in shacks with holes in the roof large enough to make stargazing possible. Other
people lived the comfortable lives of Southern aristocrats and, for the most
part, ignored the poor folk. The poor felt helpless. Thus, when leaders emerged
who understood their despair and promised to alleviate their suffering, the poor
raised their voices in a roar of approval. But these leaders, alas, too often
resorted to unethical and corrupt practices for righting decades of
wrongs.
The Southern setting of All the King`s Men offers a
vivid landscape for exploring the universal theme of power--its use and the
effect it has on those who use it. Nevertheless, a story similar to Willie
Stark`s rise to power and Jack Burden`s dependence on a man of power could be
told in a variety of settings. The ingredients for such a story include a time
and place in which the masses are helplessly grasping for a messiah to pull them
out of the meaningless chaos of their lives.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: THEMES
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.
You can see that, on one level, All the King`s Men is
about a great man`s fall. If you consider Willie Stark the king (and there is
some disagreement on who is the king in the title), one of the main themes of
the novel is Willie`s moral deterioration. His early political activities were
directed toward the welfare of the people. But his growing concern for power and
his increased need to preserve it transform the honest politician into a
ruthless governor.
Some readers call this the Huey Long theme. Long`s early
political career was devoted to helping the underprivileged. But as his power
grew, wealthy individuals and industries joined his camp; graft, blackmail, and
frenzied rhetoric became standard strategies for maintaining control. Then, at
the age of forty-three, Long was slain by a physician whose exact reasons for
wanting to kill Long still remain a mystery. Long`s bodyguards immediately shot
the assailant dead.
Very little is known about Long`s private life. Whether
he experienced psychological conflicts similar to Willie`s--that is, internal
battles between ideals and results--is uncertain. Thus, although Warren`s novel
certainly follows the external course of Long`s life, it may or may not reflect
Long`s private character in its depiction of Willie`s path of moral
decay.
If you are interested in pursuing the Huey Long theme,
you may want to read three other novels inspired by Long`s assassination.
Hamilton Basso`s Sun in Capricorn (1942), a thriller about a political scoundrel
and one of his victims; John Dos Passos`s Number One (1943), the second volume
of a trilogy about the aide of a powerful demagogue; and Andria Locke Langley`s
A Lion in the Street (1945), a study of the proposition that absolute power
corrupts absolutely.
2. GOODNESS OUT OF EVIL
Willie believes that goodness derives from evil because
there is nothing else from which to make it. This idea comes from the mature,
disillusioned Willie, who has become a tough-minded politician after losing his
first political job--when he refused to kowtow to the local kingpins--and after
discovering he was manipulated by the bosses who wanted to split rural votes.
Willie tells Jack, "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he
passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud." As he sees it,
goodness is not an inherent human characteristic. People, basically, are prone
to corruption and evil. Goodness has to be made. Adam Stanton hears Willie`s
philosophy and asks how, then, anyone recognizes what is good. Willie responds,
"You just make it up as you go along." And he explains that goodness becomes
whatever is in the best interests of society at the time.
Yet, in his innermost being, has the young idealistic
Willie been totally annihilated by the mature Willie`s pessimistic attitude
toward human nature? Has he abandoned all hope in the goodness of mankind?
Perhaps the epigraph on the title page of the novel offers you a clue. Warren
quotes from Dante`s Divine Comedy: "Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde."
("As long as hope still has its bit of green.") As you read the novel, consider
what relation the epigraph has to the novel in general and to Willie`s
philosophy of human nature in particular.
3. THE SEARCH FOR A SPIRITUAL FATHER
Most readers believe that All the King`s Men is more
Jack Burden`s story than Willie`s. Jack is one of the king`s men but not one of
his stooges. He keeps his distance from the internal politics of Willie`s
administration. Nevertheless, Jack needs Willie. Some readers interpret Jack`s
relation to Willie as one of son to father. At an early age, Jack was abandoned
by the man who he thought was his father, Ellis Burden. Jack could never
understand Burden`s actions or respect him. He regarded him as weak. He felt
dispossessed and sought a spiritual father in the strong and energetic Willie
Stark, but even Willie disappoints him. Thus, Jack`s discovery of his actual
father--Judge Irwin, whom Jack has always respected--is a turning point in his
life.
4. THE SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE
Some readers believe that man`s search for knowledge is
the primary theme of All the King`s Men. For them, every aspect of the novel
revolves around Jack`s journey toward self-knowledge. Jack`s path twists through
the politics of his times and frequently leads back into the past. Like other
characters, Jack finds that his greatest problem is his lack of knowledge.
Specifically, he doesn`t understand why his parents got divorced, what meaning
life holds for him, or how he fits into the patterns of history. Self-knowledge,
he learns, is not easily gained. He pays dearly for it, through the deaths of
his closest friends--Judge Irwin, Adam Stanton, and Willie Stark. He concludes
that "all knowledge that is worth anything is maybe paid for by blood." Perhaps
self-knowledge is gained through suffering. It`s not a pleasant prospect. What
do you think? Do you learn the most about yourself through your successes and
good times or through your failures and disappointments?
5. IDEALISM VS. MATERIALISM
Who are the happiest, most self-fulfilled, most
admirable people--those who cling to ideals or those who are willing to abandon
ideals when they stand in the way of pleasure and power? All the King`s Men asks
this question by presenting you with characters such as Adam Stanton and Lucy
Stark, who live in accordance with traditional values, and Tiny Duffy and Sadie
Burke, who seek gratification through any available means. Jack and Willie,
however, live the more complex lives; the conflicting traits of being idealistic
and practical at the same time are at war in their own personalities. They seem
to have a vision of what counts as excellent human attributes, but their
behavior often reflects the belief that the world is merely a set of physical
circumstances to be manipulated. As you`ll see, Willie uses people to put his
ideas into action, and Jack embraces the "Great Twitch"--which says that human
actions are no more significant than a facial tic--to avoid heartfelt pain. But
note that in the end both men return to the importance of such human values as
responsibility and loyalty to loved ones.
6. FREE WILL VS. DETERMINISM
All the King`s Men in part is an exploration of the
age-old philosophical debate between free will and determinism. Jack`s theory of
the Great Twitch, which he concocts after learning that Anne Stanton has become
Willie Stark`s mistress, is a deterministic theory. A twitch on an old man`s
face fascinates Jack because the man is not aware of the involuntary jerks. Jack
generalizes from this phenomenon to all of life and says that human action
results merely from physical stimuli, not from such ideas as moral principles.
This theory allows him to deny his responsibility in what he sees as Anne`s fall
from purity and to believe that Anne herself is not responsible for her actions.
According to Jack, human beings are no more than cogs in the wheels of a
mechanical universe. But Jack does not remain a strict determinist, that is, a
person who denies the possibility of human will altering the course of events.
Throughout the novel, he vacillates between believing that people are tangled in
a web of events over which they have no control and believing that they are
ultimately responsible--by virtue of their free will to choose one action over
another--for what happens to them and to others.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: STYLE
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`ll
see, the conversation goes beyond casual talk--it reveals the actual structure
of Jack`s way of thinking.
The following brief analysis of an excerpt from the
novel may help you to get a grasp on Warren`s narrative style. Here, from
Chapter 8, Jack is telling you about his trip home from California, where he
fled after learning that Anne, the woman he has always loved, is now Willie`s
mistress.
In a settlement named Don Jon, New Mexico, I talked to a
man propped against the shady side of a filling station, enjoying the only patch
of shade in a hundred miles due east. He was an old fellow, seventy-five if a
day, with a face like sun-brittled leather and pale-blue eyes under the brim of
a felt hat which had once been black. The only thing remarkable about him was
the fact that while you looked into the sun-brittled leather of the face, which
seemed as stiff and devitalized as the hide on a mummy`s jaw, you would suddenly
see a twitch in the left cheek, up toward the pale-blue eye. You would think he
was going to wink, but he wasn`t going to wink. The twitch was simply an
independent phenomenon, unrelated to the face or to what was behind the face or
to anything in the whole tissue of phenomena which is the world we are lost in.
It was remarkable, in that face, the twitch which lived that little life all its
own. I squatted by his side, where he sat on a bundle of rags from which the
handle of a tin skillet protruded, and listened to him talk. But the words were
not alive. What was alive was the twitch, of which he was no longer
aware.
One of the first things you probably noticed about this
passage is that most of the sentences are long and descriptive (word pictures
are drawn so that you can see the old man as Jack saw him). The sentence length
and structure mimics speech. There are word repetitions (for example,
"sun-brittled leather," "remarkable") and tag-on phrases ("which once was
black," "up toward the pale-blue eye")--all typical of conversation. Also, you
may have noticed that Jack is talking to you, as if you and he were passengers
together on a trip. Jack shares his impressions by using colloquial phrases
("seventy-five if a day") and pictorial comparisons ("as still and devitalized
as the hide on a mummy`s jaw").
In the fifth sentence, Jack switches from describing the
old man to giving you some insight into his view of the world. From the concrete
experience of meeting the old man, Jack presents a philosophy of life. Instead
of describing felt hats and winks, he talks about "the whole tissue of phenomena
which is the world we are lost in." Jack is telling you how he feels-human
actions and words are insignificant; the world is a mechanism so complicated
that no one can ever understand it, nor should anyone even try to do so. Jack,
of course, is depressed and disillusioned. At the moment, he has a narrow,
insulated perspective and can`t see the larger texture of life. How do you know?
Not because Jack tells you, but because Warren shows you the structure of Jack`s
way of thinking, through the organization of Jack`s talk and through the
concrete image of the twitch.
The form of language used by Warren tells you almost as
much about the personality and attitude of a character as the content of the
speech. For example, Sadie Burke`s language is the equivalent, for her time, of
today`s street talk. It is often coarse, vulgar, and candid. Willie`s speech is
subdued and subservient in his early political career, but once he wields power,
he speaks quickly and usually says whatever is on his mind, without regard for
other people`s feelings. You might compare the changes in Willie`s use of
language with the changes in his personality, looking at the parallels between
his rise to power and his increasingly pointed speech.
Another significant aspect of Warren`s style is his use
of images. Keep in mind that Warren is a poet as well as a novelist. In poetry
an image is a word or a series of words that paint mind-pictures of someone`s
sensory experiences or emotions. For Warren, then, images are vivid, concrete
ways of expressing characters` perceptions, feelings, motivations. The following
are some key images in All the King`s Men.
Light and Darkness. Jack often describes his world in
terms of light and darkness. Things blaze in the sun, dazzle on the horizon,
glitter in someone`s eyes, shine in the starlight, flash from the train. Also,
things are shuttered in shadows, plunged into blackness, split by darkness,
blurred by the speed of a black Cadillac.
Water. Jack often uses water images in talking about his
innocent childhood and his love for Anne Stanton. He grew up by the sea. Anne`s
youthful figure during her puberty fascinates Jack as he watches her float on
her back. Both Anne and Jack become sexually aroused by a kiss, as Anne rises
from a deep dive into a swimming pool. The night they almost make love, it
rains. And when Anne becomes Willie`s mistress, Jack sees green scum on a
shrunken pool.
Machines and buildings are two other pervasive images in
the novel. The novel begins in a black, speeding Cadillac that zips past shacks
along the highway and plantations among the distant trees. Willie is often
associated with machines--he controls a political machine and he wants to
improve the economy of the state through technology. Lucy, on the other hand, is
more associated with buildings, especially farmhouses. For Lucy, the homestead
on the farm represents the secure, simple, happy life that she seeks for her
family.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: POINT OF
VIEW
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
experienced journalist. As such, he attempts to be an objective reporter by
recording dialogue, thereby providing insight into the personalities of other
characters. But it still remains true that whatever you learn about Willie or
Anne or any of the others, you learn from Jack. What you see is what he shows
you. Whether you can trust him to give you an accurate account of events is for
you to decide.
Only in Chapter 4 does Jack depart from using the first
person. Here, he relates the story of another man, Cass Mastern, who lived
during the Civil War era, and he uses the third person to tell this story within
a story. In fact, during most of this chapter Jack disappears altogether. When
he does mention himself, he talks about what Jack Burden--not "I"--did. Using
the third-person point of view has the effect of drawing you into Cass`s tale of
a sour romance. Jack withdraws and gives Cass the spotlight.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: FORM AND
STRUCTURE
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 flashbacks--can
sometimes be confusing to readers.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: CHRONOLOGY OF
EVENTS
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 Willie and Jack meet.
1924 The schoolhouse tragedy.
1926 Willie`s first campaign for
governor.
1930 Willie is elected governor; Jack becomes his
aide.
1933 The Byram White affair.
1936 Willie`s visit to Pappy`s farm; beginning of
Jack`s
research on Judge Irwin.
1937 Anne`s affair with Willie; Jack`s trip to
California; the
Judge`s suicide; Willie`s
assassination.
1938 Anne and Jack`s marriage.
1939 Perspective from which Jack narrates
novel.
Warren manipulates time in All the King`s Men. Making
leaps from one time to another is consistent with the way a person`s memory
generally works and, in this case, reflects the way that Jack associates events.
As mentioned in the Style section, the novel presents you with the structure of
Jack`s thought, but is also a showpiece for Warren`s belief that human action
and meaning are a consequence of a complex interaction among the past, present,
and future.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: THE STORY
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.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION ONE: MASON
CITY
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.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION TWO: BURDEN`S
LANDING
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 childhood friends, the children of Governor
Stanton--Adam, now a famous surgeon, and Anne, the girl Jack still loves, who is
unmarried and living in the city. Also, Jack remembers how, when he was a boy,
his father, Ellis Burden, walked out of the house one day and never
returned.
NOTE: Although Jack does not yet tell you much about
himself, here you discover that he has always had close connections with state
politics and politicians. And you can see the contrasts between Willie, a
farmboy from the poor, upstate community of Mason City, and Jack, something of a
Southern aristocrat from the wealthier and more politically influential
community of Burden`s Landing. While Willie, as a boy, had to work hard for
everything he got, Jack was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his
mouth.
Another thing to note is that although Jack claims he
does not want to remember anything ("If the human race didn`t remember anything
it would be perfectly healthy"), he continually revisits his
past.
When the Cadillac stops in front of Judge Irwin`s house,
the Boss sends Jack to the door. The Judge seems glad to see Jack, until he
notices Willie behind him.
Uninvited, the Boss walks in and pours himself some
whiskey. Quickly getting to the point, he wants to know why the Judge turned
against his "boy" for the Senate. He suspects that someone has dug up some dirt
on his candidate and promises to do the same on the man the Judge has endorsed.
The Judge doesn`t back down. When Willie suggests that maybe the Judge`s hands
are not altogether clean, Irwin orders him out of the house.
Heading back to Mason City, the Boss gives Jack another
assignment: Find some dirt on the Judge and make it stick! Jack appears
reluctant to search for a scandal on the man who was once like a father to him.
He tells the Boss that he doubts there is any dirt to find. The Boss responds:
"Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of
the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something." What does
this remark tell you about Willie`s view of human nature? You`ll notice that
Jack repeats Willie`s remark several times. You might want to consider why these
words made such a big impression on Jack.
In this chapter, the narrator introduces you to two
sides of Willie`s character. In Mason City, Willie appears to be simply a "good
ol` boy" who loves his family and cares for the poor people of the state. In
Burden`s Landing, however, his actions reveal that he is also a confident,
hard-edged politician who, if necessary, would ruin the reputation of others to
get what he is after. As you learn more about Willie, try to discover what he is
after. What motivates him? Is it power or money? Or is it something
else?
Also in this chapter the narrator introduces you to
himself. He calls himself an idealist, who prefers to ignore reality, whenever
possible. But his memory keeps interrupting the peace he is trying to make with
himself. Jack is searching for answers to a tragedy he cannot forget, a tragedy
that he only hints at--the deaths of Judge Irwin, Adam Stanton, and the Boss.
What is this burden that Jack Burden carries?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION ONE: THE
SCHOOLHOUSE
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
schoolhouse. Jack`s job is to find out what is going on.
NOTE: Like Chapter 1, this chapter opens with a
description of the road to Mason City. Jack compares his first trip, in 1922,
with his last one, in 1936. But unlike the first chapter, this one quickly turns
from description to dialogue. Jack and his editor engage in a lively, yet
slightly hostile, conversation in which Jack exhibits a subtle wit and an
understanding of the politics of the state. About the similarities between
county and state politics, Jack says: "They run `em up there just like they run
`em down here." In other words, the "good ol` boy" system that often leads to
corrupt political practices is found throughout the state.
In Mason City, Jack sits with the "old ones" on a bench
in front of the harness shop. He describes the bench as a place "where Time gets
tangled in its own feet." He sits there, hoping to hear some gossip about the
schoolhouse issue. But he does not learn much from the old ones, except that
they are against Willie because he wants to bring in a "passel of niggers" and
put "white folks out of work." As Jack says, Mason County is redneck
country.
Next, Jack goes into the courthouse, where he meets the
Sheriff and Dolph Pillsbury, the chairman of the County Commissioners. These men
are every bit as racist as the old ones on the bench, but their racism is much
more dangerous. Together, they run the local political machine. But Jack does
not learn much from them, either.
NOTE: The old ones, the Sheriff, and Pillsbury come
across as stereotypes. Jack sees them as one-dimensional characters. They fit
the familiar pattern of small-town, Southern rednecks.
Stereotyping people is, of course, difficult to avoid in
everyday life and in fiction writing. All of us, from time to time, categorize
people into types--liberal or conservative, sophisticated or provincial. Why do
we stereotype people? Why does Jack do so here? Is Jack himself a
stereotype?
Down the hall is Willie Stark`s office. Jack describes
it as "the one-man leper colony of Mason City." Here, Willie begins telling Jack
his side of the schoolhouse story. He finishes it about eleven o`clock that
night at his father`s farm.
Willie tells Jack what he came to hear. Indeed, there
are some political shenanigans going on in Mason City. Willie became county
treasurer because he is a distant relative of Pillsbury. At least, that was part
of the reason. And all was going reasonably well until the bond issue for the
new schoolhouse was passed.
Several contractors submitted estimates for building the
schoolhouse. Willie wanted to accept the lowest bid, made by a large downstate
firm that employed many skilled Negro laborers. But Pillsbury and his cronies
insisted on accepting the bid from J. H. Moore. Moore, it turns out, had an
interest in a brick kiln owned by Pillsbury`s brother-in-law.
Willie protested. But Pillsbury countered his protests
by screaming "nigger-lover" and "white unemployment." Because of community
pressure, Willie`s wife, Lucy, then lost her teaching job. Willie continued
fighting against the Moore bid. He pointed out that there were two bids between
the lowest bid and Moore`s bid. Why not accept one of these if the Pillsbury
group was dissatisfied with the downstate firm? Further, he knew that the Moore
brick kiln had recently been sued for making rotten bricks. The community did
not listen.
Jack takes Willie`s story back to the Chronicle. The
Chronicle is happy to get it, the first of several articles portraying Willie as
a folk hero. But Mason County is not the only place where political skulduggery
is going on. The Chronicle also discovers corrupt practices in the courthouses
throughout the state. Thus, Jack comes to realize that his newspaper is bent on
shaking up the state political machine.
Meanwhile, Willie goes to work on the race for county
treasurer but doesn`t have a chance of winning the election. The community has
typed him as a "nigger-lover." And even the local press refuses to run his ads
or to print his handbills.
Willie loses the election by a landslide. He continues
to live and work on his father`s farm. He peddles Fix-It Household Kits. And
late at night he studies law.
Then Fate steps in. About two years after the new
schoolhouse is built, there is a fire drill. A metal fire escape pulls loose
from the brick wall and falls-the bricks were rotten. Three children are killed
and a dozen or so are seriously injured. The people remember Willie`s opposition
to the Moore bid and feel punished for voting against an honest man. This tragic
incident, Jack says, is Willie`s luck.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION TWO: THE
CAMPAIGN
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 seems to be an unreachable goal. Lawyers,
he thought, are people who should be expected to answer difficult questions on
an examination. The exam did not challenge him. Perhaps he expected too
much.
It is worth noting that Willie seems more interested in
the social rewards that knowledge can bring (for instance, being a lawyer or a
politician) than he is in having knowledge for its own sake. Social approval and
recognition are more important to him than intellectual understanding and
self-knowledge. In this respect, Jack and Willie are opposites.
One day some fat men in striped pants come in a big car
to the farm and ask Willie to run for governor. Already, there are two men in
the race--Joe Harrison, popular with city people, and Sam MacMurfee, popular
with rural folk. Willie`s visitors are from the Harrison camp, but Willie
doesn`t know it. Because Willie has become something of a folk hero, they hope
he can split the MacMurfee vote. He falls for their flattery and begins to think
that perhaps he is the state`s messiah. After all, the schoolhouse incident was
a pretty convincing show that he has a unique relation to God and Destiny. So
Willie, with his ideals and fantasies, goes on the campaign
trail.
Jack is the Chronicle reporter assigned to Willie`s
campaign. Night after night, in an adjoining hotel room, he hears Willie
polishing his speech. Day after day, he sees the crowds tune Willie out.
Willie`s speeches are awful. He spews out facts and figures, awkwardly presents
issues, and relies on the sayings and sentiments of men long dead. Finally, Jack
tells Willie that he isn`t gaining supporters because he talks about issues
instead of trying to arouse emotions. What does Jack`s comment say about his
view of the American voter? Do most audiences prefer emotional excitement to
information? Are people generally elected to high office on flash and style?
After accidentally learning from Sadie Burke that he`s been duped, however,
Willie does develop flash and style.
Late one evening Sadie, who is Willie`s secretary and a
spy for the Harrison group, comes into Jack`s hotel room while Willie is openly
worrying that he`s not going to be governor. Thinking that Willie knows he`s
been framed, Sadie reveals the truth. Further, she calls him a sap and a sucker.
Shocked, Willie reaches for Jack`s whiskey, takes his first drink of hard stuff,
and keeps drinking until he passes out. The next day, at a barbecue, Willie,
despite his considerable hangover, gives a barn-burning speech. Speaking from
his heart, he excites the crowd by telling them what it`s like to be a redneck
and to be used because of it. He tells them what a dummy he has been for the
Harrison people. Then he throws his facts-and-figures speech into the air and
resigns from the governor`s race in favor of MacMurfee. He says, "Me and the
other hicks, we are going to kill Joe Harrison so dead he`ll never even run for
dog catcher in this state."
And Willie is as good as his word. Using his own money,
he travels the state making speeches for MacMurfee. Standing with a thumb in his
overall strap, he begins his speeches with "Friends, rednecks, suckers and
fellow hicks." Willie has found his own political voice and style. And even
though he calls his audience hicks and tells them things they don`t want to
hear, they listen and vote for MacMurfee. With Willie`s energetic support,
MacMurfee becomes the next governor.
While MacMurfee is governor, Willie practices law in
Mason City. Several of his cases make the state papers, and one, in which he
represents an oil company, makes him rich. Then, in 1930, he again runs for
governor, and wins. When Willie goes to the capital, he takes with him some of
his old enemies--the Harrison people, the most important being Tiny Duffy, one
of the fat men who helped to frame Willie. But now Willie wants him around. Why?
Well, he tells Jack, Tiny reminds him of something he doesn`t ever want to
forget: "That when they come to you sweet talking you better not listen to
anything they say." Jack, however, thinks that Tiny is there for another reason.
He sees Tiny as Willie`s "other self," his contemptible and corruptible
self.
NOTE: Some readers think that Robert Penn Warren "was"
Jack Burden, that Jack represented Warren`s attitude toward the characters and
events in the novel. Warren, however, has said that he is all of the characters
and continues to be involved in them. To some extent, then, the novel`s
characters the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of the author
himself.
In a similar fashion, Willie`s character can be
understood, at least partly, by looking at the people whom he gathers around
him. Of course, you learn what Willie is like through his words and actions. But
also, by observing his chosen aides and companion--especially Tiny, Sadie, Jack,
and, later, Anne Stanton--you learn more about what makes Willie tick. Thus, as
you read further, notice the ways in which the other characters provide for
Willie a mirror to reflect both admirable and despicable qualities. Also, you
might consider to what extent you too surround yourself with people who reflect
some of your characteristics--both those that are obvious and others that may be
hidden.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION THREE: THE GREAT
SLEEP
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. He lies in his bed
and lets his imagination wander. But this experience is not new to Jack. He
reacted in the same way on two other occasions--just before he abandoned his
Ph.D. dissertation in American history and just before he walked out on his
wife, Lois.
The present Great Sleep, like the other two, occurs when
Jack loses his direction. He reflects on what has happened and begins to look at
what can be, a time of transition. Perhaps you have had your days of Great
Sleep. If so, what was it like? Did you, like Jack, hang around familiar places?
Did you let your thoughts wander wherever they would without making any effort
to discipline or direct them?
During Jack`s third Great Sleep you meet Adam Stanton,
the friend of his youth. Adam, a bachelor and a famous surgeon, lives in a
shabby apartment in the capital. Also, you meet Adam`s sister, Anne. Anne is a
trim, well-dressed, attractive woman who promotes certain charitable
organizations. She, too, is unmarried.
Jack thinks of himself as a modern-day Rip Van Winkle,
but he adds a wrinkle to the famous story: "You went to sleep for a long time,
and when you woke up nothing whatsoever had changed." But things do change. Jack
wakes up and finds himself working for Willie, who is now the governor. What
will he do for Willie? Willie says, "Hell, I don`t know. Something will turn
up."
NOTE: RIP VAN WINKLE "Rip Van Winkle" is a story in the
American writer Washington Irving`s first collection, The Sketch Book (1819-20).
Rip, a simple, good-natured fellow, wanders away from the village and his
nagging wife to spend a peaceful day in the Kaatskill (Catskill) mountains.
After meeting a group of odd-looking, mysterious men and downing some of their
liquor, he falls into a deep sleep. When he awakens and returns to town, he
discovers that everything has changed--his wife is dead and the American
Revolution has come and gone. He has slept for twenty years! Rip spends the rest
of his days telling his tale to every passing stranger.
Recent literary studies explore the psychological
dimensions of this story, interpreting Rip`s sleep as an escape from both his
nagging wife and political turmoil (he sleeps through the American Revolution)
and his awakening as a rebirth fantasy (his wife is dead and the Thirteen
Colonies are independent). Perhaps Warren wants you to compare Rip`s tale to
Jack`s Great Sleep and his eventual awakening (later in the novel) to
self-knowledge.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION ONE: JACK
BURDEN
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 he doesn`t exactly know why.
While he sits in her parlor, he notices a new breakfront
desk. In his memories of this room the years unfold as a series of changes in
furniture and changes in men. He remembers that when he was six years old his
mother told him his father had gone and was never coming back. His father went
away because, she said, "he didn`t love Mother." After that Jack had a series of
stepfathers. First, there was the Tycoon, who died and left Jack`s mother very
rich. Then there was the Italian Count, whose passion was riding horses. And now
there is the Young Executive, Theodore, who at forty-four is eleven years
younger than Jack`s mother.
Jack has cute titles for all his mother`s husbands,
including his father, the Scholarly Attorney. These titles reveal his cynicism
and a disrespect for his mother. But they also reveal a desire to give some
order, through a categorization of his mother`s men, to his family life. About
the argument that ends this visit home, an argument about working for Willie,
Jack says: "Not that it mattered much what we rowed about. There was a shadow
taller and darker than the shadow of Willie standing behind us." What do you
think he means by this?
NOTE: Some readers suggest that Jack`s resentment toward
his mother stems from an unresolved conflict in early childhood, from the lack
of an opportunity to turn away from dependence on his mother toward an
identification with, and respect for, his father. In Freudian terms, this source
of adult personality disorders is called an Oedipus complex. (In Sophocles`
famous drama Oedipus the King, about 430 B.C., Oedipus, without knowing it,
kills his father and marries his mother.) Jack loses his father when he is six
and then endures a series of stepfathers. Although none of the stepfathers
appears to harm him in any way, perhaps Jack saw himself as competing with them
for his mother`s affection. Could the theory of an Oedipus complex explain
Jack`s ambivalent feelings toward his mother? Could it explain his emotional
detachment in general? You`ll soon see that Jack has an abiding love for Anne
Stanton. Consider whether she is a mother substitute for Jack.
While in Burden`s Landing, Jack is invited to Judge
Irwin`s home for dinner. All the guests, except Jack, are opposed to Governor
Stark`s new programs. To the wealthy class of Burden`s Landing, Willie is an
ignoble Robin Hood who overtaxes the rich to help the poor and uses disreputable
means for passing his programs through the legislature. Coming to Willie`s
defense, the Judge says, "You don`t make omelettes without breaking eggs." In
other words, the Judge, an experienced politician himself, realizes that Willie
has had to use questionable ways and means for reaching admirable ends so
quickly. Nevertheless, the Judge is not one of Willie`s supporters. Does he
defend Willie out of friendship for Jack? When criticism of Willie grows
harsher, in a spurt of enthusiasm Jack defends Willie`s methods for helping the
poor. His outburst bewilders the guests. They know, of course, that Jack works
for the governor, but they assumed that Jack`s heart was really with them and
the other Southern aristocrats of Burden`s Landing.
In this section you should note the ways in which Warren
has revealed aspects of Jack`s character--for example, his ambivalent feelings
toward his mother, his tendency to clutch old memories, and his attitude toward
Willie. Keep in mind that what you learn about Jack is what he, as narrator,
chooses to tell you. To understand him well, you have to draw psychological
lines between his memories of the past and the immediate objects and events that
trigger his memories.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION TWO: THE
BOSS
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
cruelly humiliates White, Willie says, "You do it because you are helping Byram
fulfill his nature." Is Willie serious, or sarcastic?
The most important question, however, is, Why does
Willie save White from prosecution, even after his wife, Lucy, and his attorney
general, Hugh Miller, threaten to leave him if he supports White? Willie,
remember, is a political creature. The White incident can weaken his power, can
open him to attack, because an attack on one of Willie`s men is an attack on
Willie himself.
Willie prepares to retaliate. He gives Jack two
assignments--to gather incriminating evidence against one of MacMurfee`s men and
to make a second one realize that going against Willie is not in that man`s best
interest.
While Willie is outlining his plan, Hugh Miller enters
and resigns as attorney general. Clearly, Hugh likes having influenced the state
supreme court in support of Willie`s programs to help the common folk. Yet, as
Willie points out, he is too "weak-kneed" to tolerate the underside of
politics--that is, the harsh means Willie uses to persuade legislators to back
his administration. The Boss questions not his resignation but why it took him
so long to see that he could not keep his feet clean while wading in muddy
political waters. Willie and Hugh part as friends. Yet, behind him Hugh leaves
an empty place, not just in Willie`s political organization but also on Willie`s
psychological scales, with their delicate balance between cold facts and high
ideals. The representative of Willie`s political idealism is now gone. Thus, he
has to create a new symbol of that idealism. He vows to build a new hospital,
one that will serve without charge the poor people of the state. Before reading
on, consider why Willie needs to have such a man of high ideals as Hugh on his
staff. How is Hugh`s political idealism different from Jack`s philosophical
idealism? Would you rather have Hugh or Willie as governor of your state? What
are your reasons?
After Hugh leaves, Willie tells Jack he`s worried that
Lucy will leave him. Willie and Sadie Burke are having an affair, and Willie
even has brief affairs with other women when he is out of town. Lucy may know
that Willie is unfaithful, but that isn`t the reason she threatens to leave. She
is opposed to Willie`s protection of White and is afraid of the corruption that
the White incident signals is creeping into Willie`s
administration.
But Willie does protect White, and Lucy doesn`t leave.
She stays to help Willie through the bad times ahead, for the White impeachment
attempt, it turns out, is merely the first step toward MacMurfee`s ultimate
goal--the impeachment of Willie himself. Willie is charged with using such
illegal means as blackmail and bribery to force legislators to drop impeachment
charges against White.
Willie responds to the charges by touring the state,
making speeches to his supporters. The day of the impeachment proceedings, the
streets outside of the Capitol are filled with people chanting "Willie, Willie,
Willie--We want Willie!" Rednecks, old women, gas station attendants, even
county politicians gather from all over the state to support Willie. That
evening, on the Capitol steps, Willie tells them that he is still governor. The
crowd roars. What he doesn`t tell them is that the decision in his favor wasn`t
made because of their chanting but because MacMurfee`s men could be
corrupted.
As Jack looks out of a window high in the Capitol and
sees the chanting crowd, he reflects on an argument he had with his father, the
Scholarly Attorney who became a religious fanatic and pamphlet writer. His
father had said, "God is Fullness of Being." Jack argued that "Life is Motion
toward Knowledge." As such, he continued, the existence of Complete
Knowledge--God--must be denied because knowledge can never be complete. Jack
equates Knowledge with History. And knowledge is acquired by studying the links
between the past and the present. The primary activity of life, as he sees it,
is the search for knowledge. But like history, the search for knowledge never
ends as long as life goes on. Nevertheless, as you will see, some people can
make great strides toward acquiring self-knowledge. Jack is one of
them.
At this point in the story, however, Jack has only one
kind of knowledge. He knows how the drama in the capital`s streets will turn
out. He has worked behind the scenes toward the only possible conclusion--the
corruption of MacMurfee`s men. He says, "But even if I didn`t believe in the old
man`s God... I felt like God brooding on History."
In these passages several of the major themes of the
novel come to light--the themes of knowledge, of history, and of time. Keep
these passages in mind as you chart Jack`s difficult and winding path toward
self-knowledge.
Willie returns to the mansion to find that Lucy has
locked him out of her room. She did not attend his speech, nor did she let their
son, Tom, go. Willie is upset. He wishes that Lucy could understand the
practical side of politics. But she cannot. She would, he says, be content to
"sleep on the bare ground and eat red beans."
Lucy stays with Willie through his reelection in 1934.
Somewhat later, she goes to Florida for reasons of health, or so the public
story goes. When she returns, she and Tom move to her sister`s poultry farm
outside the capital.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: CASS
MASTERN
At the end of Chapter 1, the Boss tells Jack to dig up
some dirty details about Judge Irwin`s past. Jack doubts that the Judge has
dabbled in any shady or dishonest deals. Nevertheless, here Jack tells you that
his research was successful. But he does not reveal any details--not yet.
Instead, he says that this research, which he calls the "Case of the Upright
Judge," is his second major historical project. His first excursion into the
past was undertaken when he was working on his doctoral dissertation in American
history. He did not finish his dissertation. But he does the next best thing (or
perhaps this is the best thing): He shares with you the story that haunted him
as a graduate student and that haunts him still--the story of Cass
Mastern.
NOTE: A "FRAME" STORY This chapter is a complete story
in itself--a compelling, romantic, yet tragic story. And it is a "frame" story,
told in between descriptions of Jack`s life in graduate school. The telling of
Cass Mastern`s story begins in Jack`s student apartment and ends when he walks
out of it, leaving the puzzling documents behind. This is a natural way to tell
a story that was intended to become Jack`s dissertation.
Many readers question why Warren included this story.
William Faulkner, the brilliant southern novelist, after reading the publisher`s
draft of All the King`s Men, suggested that Warren throw out the rest of the
novel and publish only the Cass Mastern piece! But, as most other readers agree,
the novel as a whole is a masterpiece. And the Cass Mastern story is an
important part of it. When seen in the light of later events, Jack`s first
excursion into the past helps him to develop his own sense of moral
responsibility.
When Jack came into possession of the Cass Mastern
papers, he was studying American history at the university. A distant cousin
sent him a parcel containing letters and other documents that belonged to the
cousin`s grandfather, Gilbert Mastern. Jack looked over the papers and saw some
merit in them. He decided to write his dissertation on Cass Mastern`s place in
history, at least in the history of human emotion and
responsibility.
Cass Mastern was related to Jack on the Scholarly
Attorney`s side of the family. He lived during slave times and died in 1864 from
a wound received while he was a Confederate soldier. But the part of his life
that interests Jack starts when Cass was a student at Transylvania College in
Kentucky. Cass began writing his journal then.
The journal opens with a troubled sound. Cass writes:
"For all men come naked into the world, and in prosperity `man is prone to evil
as the sparks fly upward.`" Cass was born in poverty. But his brother, Gilbert,
amassed much wealth and was able to send him to college. In college, Cass says,
"I learned that there is an education for vice as well as for virtue." He took
up gambling, drinking, and womanizing. And his primary instructor in vice was a
young banker, Duncan Trice. Cass, however, never mentions his name in the
journal or the name of Duncan`s wife, Annabelle. Jack had to dig up this
information out of old newspaper files. Jack`s clue to the identities of Cass`s
friends was in his reference to the "accidental" shooting death of the man who
was Duncan Trice.
But Annabelle Trice, not Duncan, is Cass`s main concern
in his journal. When Duncan brings Cass home with him, Cass falls in love with
Annabelle at first sight. She was not a beautiful woman--"her beauty was in her
eyes"--yet she was graceful and had a musical voice. Cass describes her every
movement and expression, and adds that Duncan was passionately devoted to
her.
A year later, in a garden, Duncan leaves Annabelle alone
with Cass. In a subtle way, Annabelle lets Cass know that she is interested in
him. Then, that summer, while Cass is away attending to plantation business, she
sends him a note containing only two words: "Oh, Cass!" The following fall, they
become lovers, and the affair continues that year and well into the next, until
the day that Duncan is found dead in his library with a bullet in his chest. It
appears that he has accidentally shot himself while cleaning his
pistols.
After the funeral, Cass meets Annabelle at the
summerhouse. When she slips a gold band--Duncan`s wedding ring--on his finger,
Cass discovers the truth: Duncan had deliberately shot himself. Annabelle`s
personal maid, a slave named Phebe, found the gold band underneath Annabelle`s
pillow. Somehow, Duncan had learned about Cass and Annabelle`s love affair. To
rid herself of the constant reminder of guilt, Annabelle sells Phebe "down the
river," even though Phebe has a husband who works near the Trice
home.
NOTE: SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH Until the Thirteenth
Amendment (1865) to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery, each state
determined whether slavery was legal within its borders. For the most part,
slaveholding states were confined to the South. Slavery helped to form Southern
traditions, which were far different from traditions in the rest of the
nation.
Slaves were white men`s property, and they had no civil
rights. For example, they could not leave their plantations without written
permission, and their marriages were not legally recognized. In fact, as
happened to Phebe and her husband, families were often separated when an owner
sold a slave. Being sold "down the river" was one of the worst things that could
happen to a slave, because it usually condemned the individual to a short life
of hard labor or, sometimes in the case of female slaves, to sexual
abuse.
Annabelle`s decision to sell Phebe "down the river"
repulses Cass. To soften his own guilt, he goes in search of Phebe but never
finds her. So, he returns to the Mississippi plantation that his brother Gilbert
gave him to manage, and he prospers. After accumulating enough cash to buy the
plantation from Gilbert, he frees the slaves.
In January 1861, Mississippi secedes from the Union, and
soon thereafter, the Civil War begins. With his college background, Cass could
have been a Confederate officer, but he enlists as a private. He wants to be on
the front line of battle, because, he writes in his journal, "How can I who have
taken the life of my friend, take the life of an enemy, for I have used up my
right to blood." Looking for death, Cass marches into battle wearing Duncan`s
wedding ring on a string around his neck, and he carries a musket that he never
fires. Finally, a bullet finds him. Cass dies in an Atlanta hospital from the
wound. Gilbert saved his journal, letters, and gold band, all of which, much
later, come into Jack`s possession.
As a graduate student, Jack lived with the Mastern
papers for a year and a half. And after all that time and research, he felt that
he did not understand Cass. He had the facts but not the insights into human
nature. So, Jack walked away from the feelings and left the facts in a box in
his apartment. But as he moved from one apartment to another, the Mastern packet
of papers somehow always seemed to catch up with him.
NOTE: THE SPIDER WEB THEORY One of the passages most
often quoted from All the King`s Men is the following:
Cass Mastern lived for a few years and in that time he
learned that the world is all of one piece. He learned that the world is like an
enormous spider web and if you touch it, however lightly, at any point, the
vibration ripples to the remotest perimeter and the drowsy spider feels the
tingle and is drowsy no more but springs out to fling the gossamer coils about
you who have touched the web and then inject the black, numbing poison under
your hide. It does not matter whether or not you meant to brush the web of
things. Your happy foot or your gay wing may have brushed it ever so lightly,
but what happens always happens and there is the spider, bearded black and with
all his great faceted eyes glittering like mirrors in the sun, or like God`s
eye, and the fangs dripping.
But how could Jack Burden, being what he was, understand
that?
Try to put the Spider Web Theory into your own words.
What does it say about your responsibility to friends, to acquaintances, to
mankind, to history? What does it say about the consequences of your
actions?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION ONE: THE SCHOLARLY
ATTORNEY
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
two historical projects one after the other is, in part, to reveal the process
by which Jack comes to embrace the Spider Web Theory of life.
In the first half of All The King`s Men, you see Jack
attempting to live a life untouched by deep emotions. One significant element
introduced by Warren is Jack`s failure to understand Cass Mastern`s sense of
guilt and responsibility for the death of Duncan Trice and for Phebe`s fate
"down the river." And he becomes the Boss`s personal historian of the secret
scandals of state politicians, with an attitude of indifference toward the
effect that his findings may have on people`s lives.
In the beginning of Chapter 5, Jack still does not see
himself as a responsible agent in the web of life. Even though he is an
experienced historical researcher, Jack has not yet realized, as Cass did, that
"the world is all of one piece," and that the actions of all people, including
his own, intertwine to give personal meaning to history. For Jack, history is an
escape.
Notice also, Jack`s dispassionate attitude toward his
search for incriminating information against the Judge, a man who was like a
father to him. Consider why Jack says that the Upright Judge case "was a perfect
research job, marred in its technical perfection by only one thing: it meant
something." Does Jack feel that practical results from a research project taint
his efforts? Furthermore, why does Jack think that the Mastern research did not
mean anything?
After several excursions into the past--Willie`s rise to
power and the Cass Mastern story--this chapter resumes where Chapter 1 ends.
Sugar-Boy, the Boss, and Jack have returned to Mason City from their late-night
visit with Judge Irwin in Burden`s Landing. As you recall, the Judge refused to
support Willie`s candidate for senator. Willie then told Jack to dig up some
dirt on the Judge. The Boss is positive that his candidate will win.
Nevertheless, he wants to have something against the Judge. And, unlike Jack, he
is certain that there is something to be found. Further, he does not care how
long it takes to find, as Jack puts it, "the deceased fly among the raisins in
the rice pudding."
The next day, Jack goes to see the man who was once the
Judge`s closest friend--Ellis Burden, the Scholarly Attorney. Surely, if the
Judge had ever stepped out of line, Jack`s father would know.
The Scholarly Attorney lives in the capital, above a
Mexican restaurant. While waiting for him, Jack sits in the restaurant, drinking
beer and smoking cigarettes. The Scholarly Attorney enters, looking older than
Jack remembers. The Mexican woman hands him a bag of bread crusts. Jack follows
him when he leaves.
The old man is taking the bread crusts upstairs to
George, who, as the old man puts it, is "an unfortunate." George does not eat
the crusts. He chews them and molds them into angels. The old man tries to feed
him soup, but George will not eat anything except chocolate that the old man
puts in his mouth.
As Jack watches, an overwhelming feeling transports him
back many years. In their white house by the sea, he sees his father tenderly
holding out something for him to eat. Now, in the unfortunate`s room, he feels a
big lump dissolve in his chest. He says, "Father-" The old man asks what he
said, but Jack does not repeat his broken call from the past. Instead, he again
wonders why the Scholarly Attorney abandoned him and his mother. He breaks this
painful train of thought by asking, "Tell me about Judge
Irwin."
The old man refuses to talk about the past. He says that
the sinful man he was then is now dead. And when Jack tells him that it is the
governor who wants to know, he utters, "Foulness." The old man is determined
never to be a part of politics again. Jack leaves, having learned one thing:
There is indeed something buried in the Judge`s past.
Some readers see a similarity between the Scholarly
Attorney and Cass Mastern. Ellis Burden abandoned his successful law practice,
his beautiful wife and home, and his young son, Jack. In a sense, he abandoned
the materialistic world. Now, he spends his time helping unfortunates and
writing religious pamphlets. Is he, as Cass was, trying to purge himself of some
dreadful sin? As the story continues, see whether you agree that the Scholarly
Attorney and Cass Mastern are much alike. Are their "sins"
similar?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION TWO: THE
QUESTION
Jack takes his question about Judge Irwin`s past with
him on a friendly visit with Anne and Adam Stanton at their childhood home in
Burden`s Landing, the house the Stantons inherited from their father, the former
governor. While Anne lights a fire, Jack watches her with admiration. She`s
happy and she`s laughing. But he destroys her cheerful mood by suddenly asking:
"Was Judge Irwin ever broke?"
Instead of answering his question, she tells Jack that
she doesn`t understand why he works for Willie, although, she confesses, she
recently had lunch with him, hoping to convince him to divert some state money
to the Children`s Home. Jack is surprised that the daughter of the highly
respected former governor would have lunch with the Boss. He warns her that such
meetings could hurt her reputation. Could Jack be jealous? Anne defends her
action by saying that she wants to do something important. Now, almost
thirty-five and unmarried, she feels that she hasn`t done enough with her life.
Jack says that she could have married him, but marriage is not what she
means.
When Adam enters, Jack repeats his question about the
Judge. Adam remembers that when he was a child, he heard an argument about money
between the Judge and his father.
Despite the serious note of Jack`s question, the scene
in the Stanton home is one of the most light-hearted in the novel. Still, Jack
can`t seem to have a good time simply for the sake of having a good time. He
must analyze it: "Were we happy tonight because we were happy or because once, a
long time back, we had been happy?" Why does Jack question
everything?
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION THREE: THE
ANSWER
From Adam, Jack learns that the Judge needed money in
1913 or 1914. The information gives him the direction he needs to break open the
"Case of the Upright Judge."
Back in the capital, Jack finds Tiny Duffy pondering the
Boss`s decision to allocate $6 million for a hospital. Tiny wants the Boss to
give the building contract to Gummy Larson, who is one of MacMurfee`s friends,
but who could easily be bought. Tiny figures that by tying Willie up with
Larson, Larson will substantially reward Tiny.
Then Jack gets a call from Anne. She has discovered that
the Judge solved his financial problems by marrying a wealthy woman. Anne and
Jack are both happy about her discovery. He really wants to prove that the Judge
is a scandal-free man. But to prove it, he must follow up on all
clues.
His wheels start spinning. If the Judge was broke, then
he had to borrow money. To borrow money takes collateral. As collateral the
Judge could use his home in Burden`s Landing and a plantation he owned up river.
If he needed a lot of money, he could mortgage the plantation.
Jack goes to the courthouse in the county where the
plantation is located. He discovers that the plantation had indeed been
mortgaged and that foreclosure proceedings had been started. But in 1914 the
mortgage was paid in full. Of course, the rich wife could have paid it. But was
she really wealthy?
Jack travels to Savannah to check into the background of
the woman whom the Judge had married. From all indications she had been very
rich. Unfortunately, she had spent all her money before Judge Irwin married
her.
Jack`s dogged research finally proves successful. He
discovers that when Judge Irwin was state attorney general under Governor
Stanton, he had accepted a bribe for dismissing a suit against an oil company
that owed the state over $150,000 in back royalties.
After accepting the bribe, the Judge resigned as
attorney general and took a job with a company that had interests in the oil
company. A man named Littlepaugh had been fired to make room for the Judge. When
Littlepaugh went to Governor Stanton about the matter, Stanton refused to
listen, Finally, Littlepaugh wrote a letter to his sister about the situation
and then jumped off his fifth-floor balcony. Thus, not only was Judge Irwin
indirectly responsible for Littlepaugh`s death, but so was Governor
Stanton.
Jack ends this segment of the "Case of the Upright
Judge" by saying that "all times are one time, and all those dead in the past
never lived before our definitions gave them life." Thus, a conviction that has
been lying dormant in Jack since the Cass Mastern case has come to light: The
present defines the past.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION ONE: THE
HOSPITAL
In the last chapter, Jack presented the details of his
seven months of research on the "Case of the Upright Judge." In this chapter he
tells you about several other important events that took place during the same
seven months.
For one thing, Willie`s son, Tom Stark, wrecks his
sports car. He had been drinking. Unfortunately, the young woman with him is
permanently injured. Her father threatens to initiate a lawsuit. Willie makes
threats of his own and offers the father a substantial sum of money. Thus, the
matter is hushed up.
Except on Willie`s home front. Willie`s wife, Lucy, is
tired of seeing her son being treated like a hero. She sees Tom becoming
selfish, lazy, and wild. And she blames Willie: "You`ll be the ruin of him."
Willie, however, enjoys watching Tom have the pleasures and opportunities that
Willie himself never had as a young man.
Other events occur during the months of Jack`s research.
Anne Stanton receives state funds for the Children`s Home, and Willie, on
national radio broadcasts, attacks one of MacMurfee`s men in the U.S. Congress.
But for Jack, the most important events are those surrounding Willie`s dream to
build the biggest and best medical facility in the nation.
Planning the hospital has become Willie`s chief concern.
He visits some of the finest hospitals in the country. He studies blueprints and
reads books on hospital management. The Willie Stark Hospital will be his gift
to the rednecks of the state--a monument to his hidden idealistic nature. So,
when Tiny Duffy approaches him one more time with his scheme to make Gummy
Larson the hospital contractor, Willie flies into a rage. He tells Jack that he
does not want his hospital defiled by any political dealings. Further, he is
going to hire the best man in the country to run it--Dr. Adam
Stanton.
The first section of this chapter reveals several sides
of Willie`s character, You see Willie the doting father, who refuses to temper
Tom`s wild impulses. Willie values the "manly" pursuit of being a football hero.
Thus, he does not feel, as Lucy does, a need to insist that Tom lead a more
disciplined life. Willie is blinded by his own vanity and by his need to
compensate for his own unheroic youth.
You also see Willie the practical politician, who knows
how to get things done and how to take the pressure off himself. He uses a
variety of ways to do so, offering bribes, threatening to cut off a man`s source
of income (he did both with the injured woman`s father), and publicly exposing a
man`s secret sins (as with MacMurfee`s man in Washington).
But in addition you see Willie the idealist, who wants
to be remembered in history for his good deeds. The Willie Stark Hospital is to
be the symbol of his love for the common folk. And he cannot let swindlers like
Tiny Duffy lay their dirty hands on what he sees as his greatest contribution to
the good of the people. Hence, he wants an idealist to run his hospital. In a
sense, then, Adam Stanton represents the part of Willie that is committed to
ideals, to sacred human values.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION TWO:
FRIENDS
Willie tells Jack, "Get Stanton." This new assignment
amuses Jack. After all, Adam is a friend of his youth, and he knows that Adam is
not at all fond of the Boss. In fact, Jack sees the task of convincing Adam to
head the Boss`s hospital as being more nearly impossible than it was to unearth
a past scandal about Judge Irwin.
Nevertheless, Jack goes to Adam`s apartment to make
Willie`s offer: "Governor Stark wants you to be director of the new hospital and
medical center." Adam sits in stunned silence while Jack presents his argument.
In Willie`s hospital, Adam would be able to see that all the poor people of the
state were taken care of, and he would be paid rather handsomely. Moreover, he
could run the hospital in whatever way he liked, without any political
interference. Adam responds that he will not be bought by the
Boss.
Growing impatient, Jack warns Adam that he will find
what he needs to convince Adam to become the hospital director. Although he
doesn`t tell Adam, Jack is going to Memphis to pick up the letter that
implicates Adam`s father, the former governor, in the Judge`s scandal. Jack
leaves, slamming the door.
After he returns from Memphis, Jack responds to an
urgent call from Anne. She demands that Jack make Adam accept the Boss`s offer,
because, she explains, Adam is trying to cut himself off from the world and
being hospital director will keep him in touch with reality. Then she insists on
knowing why Adam does not want to take advantage of this career opportunity.
Jack tells her that it is because Adam is the descendant of a long line of
high-minded idealists who thought the world should conform to their standards,
and if Anne wants Adam to take the job, she will have to change Adam`s
idealistic view of the world. When she asks how, Jack says, "I can give him a
history lesson."
What Jack means by "history lesson" is, of course, the
papers he has on Governor Stanton`s role in the Littlepaugh suicide and Irwin
bribe affair. By seeing his father as less than perfect morally, Adam may change
his view of the world. But will a change in Adam`s viewpoint cause him to accept
Willie`s political practices?
What is Adam`s view of the world? As Jack tells Anne,
Adam is both a scientist and a romantic. The scientist in him sees everything as
a tidy and orderly system; the romantic in him sees the moral world of human
conduct in a similar way. For Adam, the bad molecules always behave badly, and
the good ones always act in accordance with goodness. Thus, he has no place in
his thinking for good molecules that sometimes act badly. Yet, he is about to
discover just such a set of molecules when he learns one aspect of his father
and Judge Irwin`s place in history. With this new knowledge will Adam`s view of
the world change?
Little does Anne know that her own view of the world is
about to change. When Jack tells her about her father`s indiscretion, Anne
refuses at first to believe it. Several days later, with the incriminating
papers in her hand, she visits Adam and then calls Jack with the news: Adam has
accepted Willie`s offer. But she asks Jack for one favor--not to use the
information against Judge Irwin until after the Judge has seen it. Jack
agrees.
Jack`s news about Adam`s acceptance both surprises and
pleases Willie. He insists on going to see Adam. Adam emphasizes his lack of
respect for Willie`s administration, and the Boss lets Adam know that his
opinions don`t mean a thing to him. Then, Willie shares some of his philosophy
with Adam. He says that goodness is not something inherited; goodness is made,
and it is made out of badness, because there is nothing else to make it out
of.
Later, Jack thinks about the Boss`s remarks on goodness.
If Willie thinks that you make good from bad, why is he against letting Tiny
Duffy make a deal on the hospital contract? Gummy Larson is as competent a
builder as any in the state.
Something else is also bothering Jack. If he did not
tell Anne about the Boss`s offer to Adam and if Adam did not tell her, how did
she find out? The answer comes from a raging Sadie Burke, who has just
discovered that the Boss is once again "two-timing" her. Jack jokingly points
out that Willie may be two-timing his wife, but he can`t be two-timing Sadie.
Making threats against the Boss and his new mistress, the irate woman even
accuses Jack of being involved. Then the truth finally dawns on Jack. The Boss`s
new mistress is Anne Stanton.
In a daze, Jack walks to Anne`s apartment. No words are
exchanged. Anne simply nods.
NOTE: IRONY This chapter exhibits Warren`s skillful use
of irony. Irony is an author`s technique for presenting a set of circumstances
in which the consequences and the implications of someone`s behavior turn out to
be different from what the characters expected and, often, from what you
expected.
For example, while thinking about Adam`s reaction to
Judge Irwin`s bribe, Jack says: "I couldn`t cut the truth to match his ideas.
Well, he`d have to make his ideas match the truth." But when Jack discovers
Anne`s involvement with the Boss, it is he who has to adapt his picture of the
world to the truth.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: ANNE
STANTON
The discovery of Anne`s involvement with the Boss deeply
disturbs Jack, and he flees to California.
NOTE: ANOTHER FRAME STORY Like Chapter 4, this chapter
is a frame story. It is the story of the youthful romance between Jack Burden
and Anne Stanton, framed in the narrative between Jack`s description of his
eight-day trip to California and back. Jack`s way of telling the story, however,
differs from the way he tells the Cass Mastern story. This is a personal story
that is close to his heart.
His romance with Anne has been in a state of limbo for
many years. Yet, even with the new development, he does not see their romance as
over. His love for Anne is still alive. And this love may be the only intense
emotion that he has not suppressed with his relentless cynicism and
dispassionate investigations into other people`s pasts. He could view the
Mastern story with emotional distance, but he is intimately involved with the
Burden-Stanton romance. Further, this story is not over, not even at the
chapter`s end.
Driving at seventy-five miles per hour through the
mostly desert lands of the Southwest, Jack describes himself as "moving back
through time into my memory." He says it is like seeing an old home movie. He
sees his father giving him candy. He sees himself hunting with Judge Irwin. And
he sees a succession of stepfathers. But his memories focus on Anne
Stanton.
Jack grew up with Governor Stanton`s two children, Adam
and Anne. Adam is about Jack`s age and Anne is four years younger. He remembers
her as the little girl who always seemed to be around when he and Adam were
playing. But then, in his twenty-first summer, he began to see her in a
different light.
In his memory Jack goes back to that time. He is home
from the university. In the mornings he, Adam, and Anne play tennis, and in the
afternoons they swim and sail. They are a threesome. Then, one evening, when
Adam is away, Jack and Anne go to a movie. On the way home they stop at Hardin
Point to watch the moonlight on the bay. They sit in silence, as Jack tries to
decide whether to kiss her. He does not. After that evening, however, things
change between them. The romance has begun.
Anne and Jack spend an affectionate, happy summer
together. Often they talk about what they will do when they get married. And one
time she asks how he will make a living. Like most women in those days--about
1918--she, of course, will be a mother and a housewife. But Jack needs a career.
However, he has not given the matter much thought, so he tells her that he is
thinking of studying law. Making money is not important to her, but she does
expect him to commit himself to something in life besides simply loving
her.
Jack lets their relationship drift along. He thinks of
her as a young, sensitive, somewhat timid girl. And he thinks of himself as an
older man of the world. They never make love, but they come close one rainy
night near summer`s end.
As Jack is driving to California, he thinks about what
would have happened if he had not refused to make love to Anne and if they had
been discovered in his bedroom. Most certainly, he decides, everyone would have
insisted on a wedding. Thus, in this intermission in his home movies, Jack
thinks, "My nobility (or whatever it was) had had in my world almost as dire a
consequence as Cass Mastern`s sin had had in his." In other words, perhaps his
marriage to Anne could have saved him. But saved him from what?
A year later, Jack starts law school and hates it. Anne
says that she doesn`t care if he studies law; she just wants him to want to do
something. He wants to marry her, but she refuses until he has found a purpose
in life. Eventually, they go their separate ways. After flunking out of law
school, he discovers that he has a keen interest in history and so begins work
on a Ph.D. in American history. But a year and a half later he abandons his
dissertation, begins working as a reporter for the Chronicle, and marries Lois
Seager.
Jack describes Lois as extremely attractive, as better
looking than Anne. Yet, he can`t figure out why Lois married him--she has plenty
of money and is not interested in brilliant conversation. He decides she must
have married him for the Burden name. He does, however, include the possibility
that she loves him.
The intriguing question, though, is why Jack married
Lois. He doesn`t love her or respect her. He says that "the only things Lois
knew about love was how to spell the word and how to make the physiological
adjustments traditionally associated with the idea." As long as Lois simply
behaves as a lovable, good-looking, sexy animal, the marriage goes well. But
when she talks or acts in any way resembling a conscious human being, Jack
becomes incredibly annoyed. Finally, Jack goes into his Great Sleep phase and
one morning packs his suitcase and walks out of the apartment. Just as he left
his dissertation, he abandons Lois. He never sees her again. Was his love for
Anne responsible for his refusal to see Lois as a human being? Why did he like
the "machine-Lois" but not the flesh-and-blood Lois? What do you think about
Jack`s way of dealing with his problems with Lois?
In his role as narrator, Jack then brings the
Burden-Stanton relationship up to date. After their breakup, Anne attended a
two-year woman`s college in Virginia, something of a finishing school. She
became engaged several times but never married. When Governor Stanton`s health
began to fail, she moved home to care for him. He died seven years later. By the
time Anne moves to the capital, she is almost thirty.
In the city she finally does become engaged, but, again,
does not marry. She reads books, keeps up her appearance, and does volunteer
work for an orphanage. Then, Willie comes into the picture, and she becomes his
mistress.
Feeling betrayed, Jack heads west, away from the
troubling situation. He feels that Anne never really loved him. Instead, he
thinks that she "merely had a mysterious itch in the blood." But in his heart
Jack knows that there was more to it than an itch. In fact, by the end of his
reverie in California, Jack comes to see that Anne has always known his
problem--his lack of confidence in the world and in himself. And he sees that,
in a sense, he handed Anne over to Willie. Jack is beginning to take
responsibility for his position in life and in history. He decides to go
home.
NOTE: Why is Anne having an affair with Willie? For a
short time, Jack seems to be taking all the blame for Anne`s affair. But this
answer is too simple. For one thing, it does not explain why Anne is attracted
to Willie. Perhaps she feels an emptiness of her own that Willie`s dynamic
personality and self-confidence fulfills. Jack sees that he did not live up to
Anne`s expectations. But why does she have these expectations? Why has she
always insisted that Jack exhibit a sense of purposefulness? Some readers feel
that she is looking for a father figure.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION ONE: THE GREAT
TWITCH
Jack leaves California with a new confidence, acquired
by his sense of having discovered a secret knowledge. He doesn`t really
understand this knowledge until he picks up an old hitchhiker in New Mexico.
Jack becomes fascinated by a twitch on the old man`s leathery cheek. The
hitchhiker is not even aware of his twitch. Yet, the twitch seems to reveal all
there is about the desperate conditions of the man`s life. Suddenly, Jack feels
that he has unraveled one of life`s well-kept secrets: Life holds no more
meaning than does the twitch on the old man`s face. Jack experiences a feeling
of liberation. He is at peace with the Great Twitch.
NOTE: BEHAVIORISM Some readers view the theory of the
Great Twitch as a literary version of the psychological theory of behaviorism.
Behaviorism is the theory that human actions can be explained in terms of how
people respond to external, observable influences. As such, people are
considered to be no more than complicated mechanisms. Their actions are caused
by external forces, over which they have no control. They may believe that they
can choose to do this or that. But the notion of having a choice, along with the
notion of having a mind, is a delusion. There is no such thing as free will.
Therefore, no one is ever responsible for anything. One`s actions are no more
meaningful than the twitch caused by an electric current passing through the leg
of a dead frog.
As long as Jack believes in the Great Twitch, he can
deny responsibility for Anne`s corruption or for anything else. He is absolved
of guilt. His intense disillusionment vanishes. Now he can go on with his life,
protected by his secret knowledge. Thus, the second phase in Jack`s growth
toward self-knowledge is his change from "brassbound" idealist to unreflective
behaviorist. By rejecting idealism he is no longer denying the reality of the
physical world, and so is no longer escaping into his own ideas about the world.
Rather, he is now escaping from responsibility by believing that life is
basically meaningless and does not operate according to moral principles but
according to physical laws--and nothing more.
With his secret knowledge, Jack returns to the capital.
He feels smug, yet cut off from others. After all, such a secret as his is not
something you can simply whisper to another person. You are stuck with it,
alone.
For the most part, Jack keeps to himself. One day,
however, he visits Adam, who is busy with the new medical center project. But he
seems to Jack to be more withdrawn than usual. Nevertheless, Adam talks at
length about an operation he is going to perform, a prefrontal lobectomy on a
schizophrenic patient. This operation, Adam explains, involves removing a piece
of the brain in an attempt to turn someone who is depressed into a cheerful,
friendly person. Jack is immensely curious about the possibility of changing
someone`s personality and moral values through an operation. He requests and
receives permission to watch the procedures. It seems that this scientific
manipulation confirms Jack`s notion of the Great Twitch. Indeed, even human
values can be changed with the flick of a scalpel.
Jack doesn`t see Adam for a while. Then he learns that
Hubert Coffee, one of Gummy Larson`s men, has tried to bribe Adam to award the
medical contract to Larson. Anne was visiting Adam the night it happened. She
tells Jack that Adam hit Coffee, then wrote his resignation to the
Boss.
Jack`s plan is to convince Willie to arrest Coffee for
attempting to bribe an official. This will prove that the governor had nothing
to do with the bribe. Of course, Adam will have to swear to the charges. But to
make the charges stick, Anne will probably have to testify also. Anne quickly
agrees. Then Jack changes his mind, worried that a smart lawyer will discover
that Anne is the Boss`s mistress. Anne says she doesn`t care.
Suddenly, Jack is overcome by a feeling of betrayal. He
grows angry. He tells Anne that she is forgetting about Adam`s feelings. Then,
without thinking, he asks why she became Willie`s mistress.
Anne says she loves Willie. After she found out about
her father`s part in the judge`s bribe, she didn`t see any reason not to have an
affair with him. Besides, Willie wants to marry her, but not now. He can`t get a
divorce until after he runs for the U.S. Senate.
The Senate business is news to Jack. But that is not
what he thinks about as he walks home. He returns to the idea that perhaps he is
to blame for what Anne did. But he only told her the truth about her father.
Could he be blamed for doing so? He turns the question over and over in his
mind.
The Boss readily agrees to swear out a warrant on
Coffee. Now, Jack has a twofold task: He has to show Adam that, by swearing out
a warrant, the Boss is being true to his word to keep politics out of the
hospital deal, and he has to convince Adam not to bring the matter to court.
Succeeding, he leaves Adam`s apartment with the torn pieces of the letter of
resignation in his pocket.
Jack has protected Anne`s honor. He thinks everyone is
keeping the affair a secret. Probably Sugar-Boy knows, but he is absolutely
loyal to the Boss. And Sadie will not tell. She is biding her time, waiting for
the affair to blow over.
All seems to be going smoothly that summer. Then, Tom
Stark is threatened with a paternity suit by Marvin Frey and his daughter. He
admits that he may be the baby`s father, but maintains that he was only one of
many who might have fathered the child. At first it seems a simple matter to
solve, but it turns out that Frey and MacMurfee are working together to cause
Willie a public scandal. MacMurfee wants to run for the Senate. So does the
Boss. A scandal is one way to lessen the Boss`s chances. But as Willie sees it,
the case against Tom must not be solid or the suit would already have been in
court. So, the Boss has some time to draw up his plans.
Meanwhile, Lucy Stark feels that something is going on,
but doesn`t know exactly what. Jack drives out to her farm and tells her about
the paternity suit. He explains that the baby may not be Tom`s, that MacMurfee
is trying to cause a scandal. Lucy is disgusted by the idea that politics could
play a part in the possibility of her being a grandmother. And she is saddened,
too. She doesn`t understand why her love for Tom and Willie, and their love for
her, hasn`t been enough.
In this section, you see Jack become emotionally more
involved in the lives of others. When he is in the operating-room pit observing
Adam perform a lobectomy, he seems to be in the dark depths of meaninglessness,
which he calls the Great Twitch. But gradually he pulls himself back into the
light of human involvement. He helps Anne make certain that Adam remains
hospital director. In doing so, he is careful to protect Anne`s honor. And he
never once questions whether he should visit Lucy. He goes to her, he says, not
because he feels he owes her anything but because he cares about
her.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION TWO: JUDGE
IRWIN
Governor Stark arrives at a plan for squelching the
paternity suit against Tom. He`s unable to arrange a deal with Frey and his
daughter, because MacMurfee has hidden them in another state. His only
alternative is to approach MacMurfee, his archenemy. Willie decides to use
someone to whom MacMurfee owes a favor. He thinks of Judge
Irwin.
The Boss asks Jack whether he has found anything on the
Judge. Jack indicates that he has, but before revealing what it is, Jack says he
has promised to give the Judge a chance to prove the findings false, a promise
he made to himself and to someone else. He doesn`t tell Willie that the other
person is Anne.
The Boss is not used to having Jack withhold information
from him and is slightly angered by Jack`s unusual display of conscience.
Nevertheless, he tells Jack to do what he has to do. Jack drives to Burden`s
Landing.
For nearly twenty years Jack thought of himself as an
idealist. But after only a few months of being a believer in the Great Twitch, a
seed of doubt is again growing in his mind. If he abandons this belief, will he
replace it with an even more cynical one? Or will he replace it with a more
optimistic view of human nature?
That afternoon Jack pays a visit to Judge Irwin, but not
before first strengthening his emotional armor by having had an argument with
his mother. The Judge is lying down. He has not been well. As always, he seems
glad to see Jack. Jack, however, is less than cordial. Yet, as he sits in the
library, he fervently hopes the Judge can prove that the charges are false.
After having a friendly drink with the Judge, he even thinks of destroying the
evidence. But Jack feels he must learn the truth.
He begins by asking why the Judge supports MacMurfee
instead of Willie, Judge Irwin explains that, although he believes Willie is
making some important changes, he is worried about the methods Willie uses. Jack
tells the judge about some of MacMurfee`s methods, including the paternity suit,
which is MacMurfee`s way of trying to blackmail Willie not to run for the
Senate. When he asks the Judge to convince MacMurfee not to pursue the suit, the
Judge refuses. Jack pleads, but still he refuses.
Feeling pushed into a corner, Jack shows the Judge the
papers testifying that the Judge many years ago took a bribe. Among the papers
is Littlepaugh`s suicide letter. Jolted by these remembrances of things past,
the Judge confesses they are true. But he refuses to be blackmailed into helping
the Boss. Also, he has a few sharp words to say about Jack`s part in the dirty
business. Jack says he will return tomorrow and hopes the Judge will change his
mind.
Later, back at his own house, a scream awakens Jack from
an afternoon nap, and he runs to his mother`s bedroom. She repeats hysterically,
"You killed him!" When he demands to know whom she is talking about, she says
that he killed his father. Judge Irwin has shot himself. In this tragic way,
Jack learns that the Judge was his father.
Jack`s mother is sick from shock. As Jack sits at her
bedside, watching her sleep, he sees everything fall into place. The Scholarly
Attorney abandoned Jack and his mother because he could no longer live with the
woman who loved the Judge and with the child who was the Judge`s son. And for
all these years, his mother has loved the Judge. Jack wonders why they had never
married. But he feels love for his mother, because, he says, he now sees that
she had indeed loved someone.
After the funeral, Jack returns to the capital. He
receives a call from the executor of the Judge`s will. Jack is the sole heir to
Judge Irwin`s estate, the same estate that the Judge saved years ago by taking a
bribe. Jack bursts out laughing. Then he weeps.
NOTE: ON HONOR AND RESPONSIBILITY As you have seen, the
Judge was an honorable man. But his honor, in Jack`s view, was "twisted." He
never married Jack`s mother or revealed to Jack, even when it might have saved
his life, that he was Jack`s father. Perhaps the Judge recognized the absurdity
of his "honor" in matters of the heart. He shot himself through the
heart.
In the end, the Judge could not face his responsibility
for misfortunes of the past. Can Jack face his responsibility for the Judge`s
death? Jack finds it ironic that the suicide for which the Judge was responsible
results in the Judge`s own suicide. And he also sees the irony in his
inheritance from the Judge.
Of course, learning that he is the Judge`s son is just
as traumatic for Jack as learning about the Judge`s death. He is now left alone
to create, if he can, his own life of honor and responsibility.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION ONE: TOM
STARK
Jack begins this chapter by observing that no story is
ever over. The "Case of the Upright Judge" ends tragically; yet, life goes on.
The Judge`s story, he says, is merely a chapter in the longer story of Willie
Stark.
Instead of going into a Great Sleep or escaping West, as
he has done during other crises, Jack returns to work, filled with resolve. He
tells Willie that he will no longer do any of his dirty work. Surely, the Boss
teases, he will help him to blackmail MacMurfee. Not even MacMurfee, Jack
replies. From then on, Jack keeps apart from the dirty business of politics and
goes about his "innocent little chores." One little chore, for instance, is
helping the Boss put together a tax bill.
Meanwhile, the governor has to find a solution to the
threat posed by MacMurfee. With Judge Irwin dead, Willie seems to have only two
options--either to give up his plans to run for the Senate or to award the
hospital contract to Gummy Larson. Either way he emerges a loser. If he buckles
under to MacMurfee`s pressure, he sacrifices power and pride. If he bribes
Larson, he contaminates the hospital with political wheeling and dealing and
cuts loose one of his few remaining ties to the political ideals of his youth.
He chooses power over ideals.
One night, when Jack visits the governor`s mansion, he
finds the Boss quite drunk, in the company of Gummy Larson and Tiny Duffy.
Apparently, the hospital deal is being cinched. And Willie is obviously
miserable, even though Larson has agreed to take care of MacMurfee for him.
Before Larson leaves, the Boss threatens that he will rip him open if he so much
as leaves off one window latch: "You hear--that`s my hospital--it`s
mine!"
After Larson and Tiny leave, the Boss continues cursing
Larson. And he curses himself for letting dirty politics touch the
hospital.
Jack thinks about Tom`s role in the Boss`s current
misery. And he thinks that Willie, in part, brought this on himself by making
Tom what he is. In appearance, Tom resembles his father as a young man. But
their similarities end there. As a young man, the Boss was energetically trying
to discover his purpose in life. Tom, however, is content to be a flashy,
arrogant football hero. He breaks training whenever he likes, and the coach
ignores it--until one of his tavern fights makes the newspapers. Then he and
another player are suspended.
Without their star quarterback, State loses the next
game to Georgia. The team still has a chance of winning the Conference
championship, but they must win the next game. After the Boss puts pressure on
the coach, Tom is allowed to play and the team wins. The next game is an easy
one. Tom doesn`t even need to be on the field in the second half, but the coach
sends him in for some exercise. Tom is showing off a bit when he gets hit. He
doesn`t get up.
When Tom is taken to the hospital, Adam Stanton is put
on the case. Tom`s neck is broken and he`s paralyzed. Adam advises an immediate
operation but admits to Willie that the operation is risky. Without consulting
Lucy, the Boss agrees to the operation. Adam looks at Lucy. She also agrees.
While they are waiting for the outcome, the Boss says that he is going to name
his new hospital the Tom Stark Hospital. Lucy quietly says, "Oh, Willie, don`t
you see? Those things don`t matter."
Hours later Adam returns from surgery. Tom will live,
but he will be paralyzed. His spinal cord is crushed.
NOTE: DIRECTION In this section, Jack withdraws into
his shell. He shuns involvements of all kinds, from social outings to dirty
politics. Perhaps he is recuperating from the loss of his father and from his
disillusionment over Anne. Then again, he may be gathering his energies so that
he will be able to find a purpose for himself. Until now, he has been drifting
along without direction.
After the judge`s suicide, Jack witnesses another series
of sad events--the Boss`s sacrifice of goodness for power and the crippling of
Tom Stark. Yet, he sees that all these events are tied together. Tom`s sexual
excursion leads to Jack`s having to tell the Judge that his sinful past has been
discovered. The judge`s death causes the Boss to turn to Gummy Larson. The
Boss`s pressure on the coach leads to Tom`s paralysis. And time rolls on, with
the past affecting the present, the present giving meaning to the past, and the
future always being only a breath away. As Jack says, "But this only affirms
what we must affirm: that direction is all." Jack is growing in
wisdom.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION TWO: THE
FALL
Telegrams expressing sympathy flood Willie`s office.
Jack watches the Boss`s men as they enter the office. Tiny comes in, his face a
marvel of gloom. But when he discovers that the Boss isn`t in, he perks up.
Sadie arrives, looks around at the mournful gathering, curses, and goes into her
office. For Jack, it`s a rather pleasant day. Peering out a window, he describes
the landscape as looking like "the face of a person who has been sick a long
time and now feels better and thinks maybe he is going to get
well."
NOTE: You have probably noticed that Jack is fond of
describing both the interior design and the outdoor surroundings of the places
he visits. Often, the way he sees these places reflects his attitude toward
life. In the line just quoted, you can see Jack projecting onto the landscape
his feelings of having overcome a long illness. And, as you will see shortly, he
is not the only person overcoming a long spiritual illness.
The Boss enters the office. His face shows the ravages
of pain, but his eyes are clear. He tells Tiny that the deal with Larson is
off.
Jack goes back into his office. Later in the afternoon,
he discovers that Sadie tore out of her office like a wildcat after prey. He
wonders what is going on. Things seem a bit strange. Then he gets a call from
Anne.
When he arrives at her apartment, Anne is in tears. Some
man called Adam to tell him that Anne is Willie`s mistress, that Adam is the
hospital director only because of Anne`s hold over Willie, and that now Adam is
going to be fired because he has paralyzed Tom by performing a bad operation.
Telling Anne that he will not "be paid pimp to his sister`s whore," Adam has run
out of her apartment. Anne now asks Jack to find Adam and talk to him. "Get
him," she pleads. "For he`s all I`ve got now."
Jack goes in search of Adam, He looks all day and leaves
messages everywhere. But he doesn`t find him. That evening Jack is called to the
Capitol.
The legislators are milling around after ending a late
session on the new tax bill. Jack sees the Boss talking to several senators.
Sugar-Boy is leaning against a marble wall. Jack leans with him and waits.
Shortly, the Boss calls Jack over. He says that he has something to tell
him.
As they walk into the great lobby under the dome, Jack
sees Adam standing near one of the statues. Adam is wet and muddy. Jack calls
his name, but Adam ignores him and walks toward the Boss. Willie puts out his
hand. Adam puts out his hand. Holding a small pistol, he fires
twice.
These shots are immediately followed by a series of
louder shots, and Adam falls to the floor. Jack runs to him, but he is already
dead. Sugar-Boy stands nearby with a smoking pistol in his
hand.
At first, Jack thinks that the Boss was not hit. Then he
pushes through a crowd and sees Willie sitting on the floor with both hands
covering a wound in his chest. He is taken to the hospital, survives an
operation, but dies several days later from an infection. Before he dies, he
says, "It might have all been different, Jack. You got to believe
that."
During his political career, Willie steadily gained more
and more control over the state government and over the people who run it.
Except for MacMurfee`s opposition, Willie`s control was practically absolute.
But after Tom Stark became paralyzed, something happened to Willie. This
situation was one over which he had no control. Apparently, he took stock of
himself and decided to turn things around. First, he told Tiny to call off the
Larson deal. He appeared to have called off his affair with Anne. Also,
something upset Sadie but, at this point, you can only assume that the Boss had
cleaned out this unsavory aspect of his life, too. Willie wanted to talk to
Jack. But before he could, Adam shot him. He died, saying how it might have all
been different. In the few days before he was shot, he seemed to be trying to
make things different, perhaps to return to the ideals of his youth. But all the
king`s horses and all the king`s men could not put Willie back together
again.
This chapter ends with many issues left unresolved. For
instance, what decisions had Willie made that led to his death? Who was the
anonymous caller who incited Adam to assassinate the Boss? These questions are
answered in the next chapter.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION ONE: THE BLOODY
GROUND
Jack attends Adam`s funeral in Burden`s Landing and the
Boss`s funeral in the capital. Then he returns to Burden`s Landing to stay a
while. Anne is also staying in Burden`s Landing. So, as would seem natural, they
spend much time together. Most of it is spent in peaceful silence or with Jack
reading to Anne. Neither of them talks about what has happened. They drift along
in a kind of numbness. But one day the question of who phoned Adam becomes
urgent to Jack.
NOTE: THE NARRATOR AS THE CENTRAL CHARACTER As a final
chapter should, Chapter 10 resolves several conflicts that were developed
earlier in the book. Among them is the question of the underlying reasons for
Willie`s assassination. Yet, the primary conflict in All the King`s Men has been
within the consciousness of the narrator. As one reader puts it, this novel is,
at least on one level, an "autobiography of a mind." And as most readers agree,
the moving force of the novel is the narrator`s struggle to reveal the pattern
of events that leads to his self-acceptance and self-knowledge, to his sense of
direction and sense of responsibility. Nevertheless, some believe that Jack
Burden`s dual role as narrator and central character is a flaw in an otherwise
outstanding novel. They argue that because all the events are filtered through
Jack`s observations, you cannot know whether you are getting the straight story.
In other words, they question the reliability of the narrator. And they cite
Jack`s introspective digressions and his philosophical flights as
examples.
Whether or not you decide that Jack is a reliable
narrator, you should notice the ways in which he resolves the conflicts of his
life. In particular, notice how he comes to terms with the differences between
himself and Willie and with the conflicts in his relationship with his mother.
Also, notice that, through a sympathetic understanding of Tiny, Sadie, and
Sugar-Boy, Jack gains a greater sense of both the tragic and the heroic aspects
of life.
Jack gathers his courage to break the "conspiracy of
silence" that he and Anne have formed in order not to look at the blood on their
hands. Jack must know who else is responsible--who is more directly
responsible--for the deaths of his friends. But Anne doesn`t know who called
Adam. She knows only that it was a man. In search of the truth, Jack leaves
Burden`s Landing.
First, Jack decides to talk to Sadie Burke. He finds her
in a sanatorium, where fairly well-to-do people bring their problems and nervous
symptoms.
Sadie`s only beautiful feature was always her fire-ember
eyes. But now Jack sees just ashes. She is burnt out. She explains that she is
in a rest home simply because she is tired. Jack has one question for her: Who
called Adam? Sadie says that she hasn`t any idea. Jack humors her for a moment.
Then he quickly turns and tells her that she knows it was Tiny.
Sadie curses Jack. But Jack keeps repeating, "How do you
know?" Without putting up much of a fight, Sadie confesses that she told Tiny to
do it. Jack is surprised. He did not suspect Sadie. He hears himself telling
her, "You killed him." Jack is thinking of Adam. But Sadie is thinking of
Willie. She says that Willie dumped her because he was going back to Lucy. She
told Willie she would kill him, and she did. And in so doing, she also killed
Adam Stanton.
Jack can forgive Sadie because she acted from passion,
but he cannot forgive Tiny Duffy. He lets his hatred for Tiny fester. Then he
visits Sadie again. Sadie volunteers to make a statement against Tiny. She
doesn`t want to protect herself. Rather, she resents the gleeful and arrogant
way that Tiny acted after the Boss was shot.
Tiny, who had been Willie`s lieutenant-governor, is now
governor. He tells Jack that all the boys at the Capitol miss him. Further, Tiny
wants Jack to work for him. Jack responds, "You are the stinkingest louse God
ever let live." And he tells Tiny that he has talked to Sadie and so now knows
that Tiny killed the Boss just as surely as if he had pulled the trigger
himself. Jack leaves, feeling like an avenging hero.
A few days later he receives a notarized statement from
Sadie verifying Tiny`s action in the Boss`s death. She also includes a personal
letter to Jack in which she offers some advice. She gives Jack several reasons
for not pressing charges against Tiny. For one thing, they won`t stand up in
court. For another, Tiny does not have the respect of the Party and will not be
nominated to run for governor in the next election. And finally, Anne`s affair
with Willie will become public knowledge, and there is no reason for her to
suffer any more. Nevertheless, she says that if Jack persists in being an Eagle
Scout, he has her support.
Jack sees the wisdom in her words. Even before her
letter arrived, he had reflected on his motives for wanting to kick Tiny around.
Tiny`s confidence that Jack would work for him spurred Jack`s reflection, and he
began wondering what kind of image he has been projecting all these years. Now
he sees himself to be as much of a political leech as Tiny.
Revolted by his own behavior, Jack sinks back into the
despair of the Great Twitch-only this time more severely than before. He is
experiencing the realization of loss.
Although Jack does not resort to a Great Sleep this
time, he engages in something similar. He sits in his room, doesn`t open his
mail, and hangs out in the city. He goes to movies, bars, and the public
library. One day, in the library, he runs into Sugar-Boy. Sugar-Boy seems to be
hanging out, too. With the Boss gone, he doesn`t know what to do with himself.
But he is still clinging to his ferocious loyalty to Willie. Jack thinks about
taking advantage of Sugar-Boy`s loyalty. He presents him with a hypothetical
question: What if you knew that Adam had been framed so that he would shoot the
Boss and you knew who did it--what would you do? Sugar-Boy says that he would
kill him, and Jack knows that indeed he would. Also, Jack thinks that, by
killing Tiny, Sugar-Boy would perhaps fulfill his reason for existing. But then
Jack sees Tiny`s face winking at him as if they are brothers of the blood. So,
Jack tells Sugar-Boy that he is just kidding. He wishes Sugar-Boy good luck and
walks away.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: SECTION TWO: THE AWFUL
RESPONSIBILITY OF TIME
After Jack meets with Sugar-Boy, his need for revenge
vanishes but his need to become involved grows. He decides to visit Lucy. She
seems fine and asks Jack whether he knows that Tom is dead. He does. Then she
shows him a baby, Tom`s baby. She has named him Willie Stark, because, she says,
"Willie was a great man." And she adds, "I have to believe
that."
Jack realizes that he, too, has to believe that Willie
was a great man. By believing in Willie`s inherent goodness, Jack can believe in
the goodness of other people, including himself. But it also gives him the right
to condemn himself. In particular, he is thinking of his relationship to his
mother.
His mother calls and asks him to come to Burden`s
Landing as soon as he can. When he arrives, she tells him that she is leaving
her husband, Theodore. She explains that the Judge`s death shocked her into
realizing that he had been the only man she ever loved. She cannot go on living
a lie with Theodore.
Jack walks into the garden and thinks that, by killing
his father, perhaps he had saved his mother`s soul. Then he thinks that "all
knowledge that is worth anything is maybe paid for by blood." If so, Jack has
paid dearly for his growth in self-knowledge. The cost has been the blood of his
three closest friends--the Judge, Adam, and Willie.
Before Jack`s mother leaves to get a divorce in Reno,
she wants Jack to tell her what he and Judge Irwin talked about that afternoon
before the Judge killed himself. Jack tells her that the Judge talked mostly
about his failing health. As her train pulls away, he wonders whether he lied to
protect himself or to protect his mother. He decides that his lie had been his
going-away present to her, perhaps even a kind of wedding present. In a sense,
Jack`s mother and the Judge have had a spiritual reunion.
And Jack`s mother gave him a present. She gave him back
the past and filled in the empty spot in his heart. For years he had condemned
her as a heartless woman who amused herself with a parade of husbands. He even
felt that she used him. And he hated himself for being both attracted to and
repelled by her. Now, however, he understands that she loved deeply and
continues to love deeply the man who was his father, Judge Irwin. Now Jack has a
past he can embrace, and he feels at peace.
That evening Jack visits Anne. He shares with her the
story of his mother and Judge Irwin. And together, Jack and Anne share the
wisdom of time that you must accept the past, because out of the past you make
the future. That night Jack sleeps in his father`s house. And not long
thereafter, he and Anne live there together as man and wife.
NOTE: Jack`s new perspective on life grew out of tragedy
and is nurtured by an awareness of "the awful responsibility of time." Jack has
learned the most by reflecting on the deaths of Adam and Willie. Adam was a man
of high ideals who did not really belong to this world. On the other hand,
Willie was a man of fact, a man who got things done. One man thought that
goodness is an idea valuable for its own sake; the other thought that nothing is
valuable until it is a realized fact. In the end, they were doomed to destroy
each other.
Jack took lessons from both of them. In a sense, he is a
blend of the two. But to say that ignores the complexity of Jack`s character. In
Chapter 9, Jack compares himself with Willie. He suggests that he is an
intellectual who sees history with detachment, while Willie is a man who makes
history. Before the assassination, Jack was indeed a detached, cynical
intellectual, who believed in the moral neutrality of the Great Twitch. But now
he has come down into the real world and is heading "out of history into
history."
After Jack and Anne are married, the Scholarly Attorney
lives with them. He is very sick and will soon die. Yet, he occasionally has the
energy to dictate to Anne or Jack material for his religious pamphlets. And Jack
is writing, too. He is writing a book on the life of Cass Mastern. When the old
man dies and Jack`s book is finished, Anne and Jack plan to leave Burden`s
Landing. And here the novel ends. But as Jack said earlier, no story is ever
over.
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: ON ROBERT PENN
WARREN
The poetry, the fiction, and even the critical essays of
Robert Penn Warren form a highly unified and consistent body of work. But it
would be impossible to reduce it, without distorting simplifications, to some
thesis about human life. The work is not tailored to fit a thesis. In the best
sense, it is inductive: it explores the human situation and tests against the
fullness of human experience our various abstract statements about it. But
Warren has his characteristic themes. He is constantly concerned with the
meaning of the past and the need for one to accept the past if he is to live
meaningfully in the present. In this concern there are resemblances to Faulkner,
though Warren`s treatment is his own. Again, there are resemblances to W. B.
Yeats in Warren`s almost obsessive concern to grasp the truth so that "all is
redeemed / In knowledge."
-Cleanth Brooks, The Hidden God, 1963
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: THE SOUTHERN
SETTING
Richard Gray has asserted that All the King`s Men is
typically Southern in its concern with the way past and present are inextricably
linked. That is certainly a central theme of the novel, but that is precisely
the problem: its generality. Surely all sorts of works in modernist literature
are organized around this theme without thereby making them uniquely
Southern.
Thus in All the King`s Men, and in most of Warren`s
fiction, the South serves as a setting rather than a theme itself. More
important, Warren`s dominant concern in All the King`s Men is less an evaluation
of the collective Southern past than, first, an exploration of the problem of
power and political insurgency and, second, of self-definition and
identity.
-Richard H. King, A Southern Renaissance,
1980
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: ON
TECHNIQUE
The point at which to get a grasp on the technique of
All the King`s Men is the narrative of Jack Burden, for the basic observation
about the form of the novel is simply that it consists entirely of a story
related by a created character who has observed and participated in the action
that makes it up. It is Burden`s supposed recollection of past events from a
present time, but the attempt throughout (with the exception of the Cass Mastern
chapter, occasional remarks of a sentence or two, and the final few pages) is to
represent the consciousness of Jack Burden as it was at each past moment
rendered, not to exhibit the past as interpreted through a viewpoint achieved in
the fictional present. These moments range over his whole earlier life, and thus
his narrative constitutes in one sense the autobiography of a
mind.
-Neal Woodruff, Jr., in All the King`s
Men:
A Symposium, ed. Fred A. Sochatoff,
1957
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: WILLIE AND
ADAM
Stanton`s decision to assassinate Willie, whom he knows
only as an abstraction, characterizes the objective scientist in him. To
Stanton, Willie is a cancer, not a human being. The doctor`s temporary
substitution of "pure force" for "pure idea," therefore, is no reversal since
both positions are remote from the human median. What Adam`s action does allow,
however, is the double irony of a man`s being killed by his favorite weapon at
the very moment he has decided to lay it aside--a dramatic assertion of the
penalties attendant on evil self-willed. Although Willie dies ignorant of Adam`s
motives and perhaps of his own, yet when he insists on his deathbed that life
could have been different he is accepting the notion that his will has always
been to some degree free and that he can be blamed or credited to that extent
for actions now formally his. In this manner he attempts to rescue identity, to
prevent himself from being reduced to mere function in a mechanical
universe.
-Leonard Casper, Robert Penn Warren,
1960
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN: HUMAN NATURE AND
HISTORY
Man as well as history, Warren believes, has a dark and
evil side, for his nature is depraved. Warren sees man as both good and bad, a
coiling, confused darkness of motives which no one can completely understand.
This enormous complexity of motives and hidden desires is one reason why we can
never fully understand history, which consists as much of the actions of men as
of non-human forces. Then, too, Warren believes that man must understand and
accept his own individual evil nature before he can formulate values from
history and his own past without merely flattering his own black and hidden
needs. The nature of man`s self consequently limits his ability to make sense of
the past, both its human and non-human aspects, and self-understanding is a
prerequisite of a right relationship to history. And since man`s acts are to
Warren the most important part of history, his views on the nature of the self
are directly relevant to a study of his philosophy of history.
-L. Hugh Moore, Jr., Robert Penn Warren and History,
1970
^^^^^^^^^^ALL THE KING`S MEN:
SELF-KNOWLEDGE
What of the book`s political morality? It was a pity
that the reviewers regarded All the King`s Men as primarily another life of Huey
Long to be compared with the other lives of Long and not with the other works of
Warren. It must be obvious by now, if my account of the book is half-way
accurate, that it is not a political treatise about Long or anything else. Like
Proud Flesh, it is another study of Warren`s constant theme: self-knowledge.
Nevertheless, it has political implications--and we will understand them
correctly if we see them within the broader frame. Indeed, to say that we must
see politics within a broader frame--the frame being morality and human life in
general--is precisely Warren`s thesis. Willie Stark, Adam Stanton, and Tiny
Duffy are wrong politically because they are wrong humanly.
-Eric Bentley, "The Meaning of Robert Penn Warren`s
Novels,"
Kenyon Review, 1948
THE END
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