Juxtaposition of All the Kings Men

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Kristapher Guillen Mrs. Trammell Ap Language & Composition January 30 2013 The Juxtaposition of the King's men Within the famed novel, All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren uses juxtaposition in order to convey one of the novel's most prominent themes. Throughout All The King’s Men, there is a constant struggle between innocence and awareness. For a reader to fully understand the novel one must acknowledge this struggle, for it is integral to the transformations of several major characters and the development of the novel itself. In the book, there are many cases where ignorance does prove to be bliss. However, there are also quite a few instances where awareness helps to empower a character. By the end of the story “innocence vs. awareness” becomes one of the most prevalent themes. Using juxtaposition the southern author, Warren, creates a parallel between the two concepts of innocence and awareness. Warren forces these two unrelated entities together so that they may be compared and pondered. Therefore the reader is forced to wonder if it would be better to know the facts or to be left in suspense; is knowledge worth the realization of facts that were intended to remain unknown? From the first chapter till the last few pages of the book, the narrator, Jack, hosts an ongoing battle of “innocence vs. awareness” within himself. Towards the beginning of the novel Jack claims to believe in the principle “ignorance is bliss” so much as to seem nihilistic: “…after I got hold of that principle I became an idealist…If you are an idealist it does not matter what you do or what goes on around you because it isn’t real anyway.” (Warren 45). In spite of his strong beliefs in the beginning of the story, Jack’s views begin to change in chapter eight after he informs Judge Irwin of the
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