All The King's Men Research Paper

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All The King’s Men Essay, Research Paper In the novel All the King s Men, by Robert Penn Warren, the author uses the conflicts, both those of society and the characters, the setting and the attitudes of the community to reflect the period of the 1930 s and its similar conflicts, social attitudes and values of the time. All the King’s Men is the story of the rise and fall of a political titan in the Deep South during the 1930s. Willie Stark rises from hardscrabble poverty to become governor of his state and its most powerful political figure; he blackmails and bullies his enemies into submission, and institutes a radical series of liberal reforms designed to tax the rich and ease the burden of the state’s poor farmers. He is beset with enemies–most notably Sam MacMurfee, a defeated former governor who constantly searches for ways to undermine Willie’s power–and surrounded by a rough mix of political allies and hired thugs, from the bodyguard Sugar-Boy O’Sheean to the fat, fawning Tiny Duffy (Coughlan, 52). All the King’s Men is also the story of Jack Burden, the scion of one of the state’s aristocratic dynasties, who turns his back on his refined upbringing and becomes Willie Stark’s right-hand man. Jack uses his considerable talents as a historical researcher to dig up the unpleasant secrets of Willie’s enemies, which are then used for purposes of blackmail. Cynical and lacking in ambition, Jack has walked away from many of his past interests–he leaves his dissertation in American History unfinished, and never manages to marry his first love, Anne Stanton, the daughter of a former governor of the state. When Willie asks Jack to look for skeletons in the closet of Judge Irwin, a father figure from Jack’s childhood, Jack is forced to confront his ideas concerning consequence, responsibility, and motivation. He discovers that Judge Irwin has accepted a bribe,

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