The Awful Responsibility to Time
In Robert Penn Warren's famous novel All the King's Men, the foremost account of politics and a man's fall of power is contrasted with the more complex and intriguing tale of Jack Burden and his rise to a more complete character. By finally accepting his role in the order of events surrounding him, Jack becomes aware of his sin and learns to understand the importance of recognizing that his fate is intertwined with others. The story of Cass Mastern, the subject of Jack's unfinished dissertation for his Ph.D. in American History, is a story of a man driven by his own sin to sew the tattered fabric of others that has been torn by his immoral act. The story of Cass Mastern serves as a measuring stick against which Jack's progress as a character can be measured: the closer Jack Comes to understanding Cass Mastern, the closer he is to accepting the idea of human responsibility in time. The story of Cass Mastern is ultimately a tale of redemption after sin, success after failure. As a student at Transylvania College in the 1850's Cass Mastern had had an affair with Annabelle Trice, the wife of his friend Duncan Trice. When Duncan discovered the affair, he took off his wedding ring and shot himse
he vowed not to kill a single enemy soldier, since he believed himself already responsible for the death of his friend. He was killed in a battle outside Atlanta in 1864. After leaving to find Phebe, he had never set eyes on Annabelle Trice again. Cass, unlike Jack, accepts his own role in the lives and deaths of those around him. Trying to repent for his sin, Cass embarks on a respectable effort of redemption, "not touch[ing] the world of foulness again" (202). He knows that the lives of his friends have been changed forever by his immoral deed. lf, a suicide that was chalked up to accident. But Phebe, one of the Trices' slaves, had found the ring, and taken it to Annabelle Trice. Annabelle had been unable to bear the knowledge that Phebe knew about her sin, and so she sold her. Appalled to learn that Annabelle had sold Phebe instead of setting her free, and appalled to learn that she had separated the slave from her husband, Cass set out "to find her and buy her and set her free" (Warren, 178); but he failed, wounded in a fight with a man who insinuated that he had sexual designs on Phebe. After that, he set to farming a plantation he had obtained with the help of his wealthy brother Gilbert. But he freed his slaves and became a devout abolitionist. Even so, when the war started, he enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army. Complicating matters further, though a Confederate soldier! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ responsible for an action, then the Great Twitch theory cannot hold up; and if someone is responsible for Willie's death, Jack is forced to face the measure of responsibility that he himself bears. Had he not told Anne about her father's role in Judge Irwin's bribe, Anne would not have become Willie's lover, and there would have been nothing for Tiny to provoke Adam with. Had he not convinced Adam to take the hospital job, Adam would not have been in the middle of a moral crisis that would have left him vulnerable to Tiny's manipulations.
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Approximate Word count = 1362
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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