All The King's Men

A detailed Summary of All The King's Men

All the King's Men is not the story of one man's political rise and fall, but the story of two men. Willie, whom many take as the main character, may not even be the main character, but Jack Burden. But in all, Robert Penn Warren's novel is not the story of a singular man or two men, but a complex story of human achievement, failings, errors, and ideals.

Jack Burden distinctly goes through a profound change throughout the course of the novel. Jack Burden calls himself a "student of history," only caring about revealing the truth, and taking pride once unraveling the past. Through the course of the novel, Jack Burden seems to question his status to only find the truth, and comes to the question, what really is the truth? Are there really two truths, one being qualitative and the other being quantitative? This conflict is brought up in many aspects of the novel, and by realizing the significance of Jack's awareness of this conflict do you realize that the novel really isn't the story about Governor Willie Stark, but the story of Jack's "spiritual odyssey." Jack hasn't really discovered who he really is in the beginning of the novel, as is shown through his confrontation of the judge with Governor Stark,

"...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."

This is the lesson that Jack is learning throughout his life and only realizes as a man, something he could only realize as a thinker of history.

In the end, Governor Stark meets his demise at the work of his own hands and Jack goes on to live "...in my father's house....with me is my wife, Anne Stanton, and the old man who was once married to my mother." The story of Governor Stark was the story of idealism twisted, of hopes once sought, then turned and destroyed by reality. The story of Jack Burden is most important of all, of man discovering himself. But in the end, that is what everyone's story is. Stark's innate goodness is twisted and covered up by his position, but arises in his hopes for tomorrow, the hospital that people will be able to come to for years after his death and not pay a thing. Willie sees what he has become, as Jack sees what he was. Both are pivotal characters in this story, but the characters were not the story, but the rise and fall of hopes.

Willie's assumption that people want good for themselves and their children is not flawed, just in the context in which he thinks of it. While Willie is busy presenting issues on the future, other politicians are entertaining the electorate, distracting them from the day to day lives that they live knowing that promises today guarantees vote for tomorrow. Willie's views on being elect

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Approximate Word count = 1157
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels