Following the trials and tribulations of a seemingly political powerhouse, Willie Starks, Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men” takes an intriguing twist with the rise of influence in the character of Jack Burden. Although Willie Starks is seemingly the main character of the story, Robert Penn Warren, plays Jack Burden’s evolution in the plot as the pivotal piece to the story. Watching the two of their relationship develop, is the key piece to the plot of the story. Although this novel traces the rise and untimely death of a political proprietor, it also provides insight into the atmosphere that produced a person like Willie Starks. While Penn Warren also doesn’t initially show the importance of Jack Burden’s character but touches on it in order to bring up the topic serenely. Penn Warren creates a novel about two characters and their development through the struggles they faced as business partners. A seemingly insignificant character, Jack Burden, develops into a complex personality of a man who lost his past and through his experiences with Willie Stark must find it. His story introduces the role of history in the protagonists’ lives while ushering the idea of actions affecting people and the ripple effect it creates in the life of Willie. Living his life in a cocoon, Penn Warren displays the process in which he emerges out of this cocoon into a dynamic part of this story. Intertwined with Willie Stark’s life, the experiences of one effects the story of the other. Reinforcing each other while also creating feuds that reflect on the rest of the story creating the depth of the novel.
Structurally complex, All the King’s Men takes a unique approach in telling the story of Willie Starks and Jack Burden. Describing events fr...
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...e another. Jack, the narrator of the novel undergoes the most monumental alteration and at the end of the story we learn the most about. Although Willie is the most powerful figure in the story, it is primarily a story told by Jack Burden. Both characters rely on each other because without Jack, Willie’s life would mean little to nothing and vise versa. Complex characters in and of themselves, they both act in a manner that seems contradictory, this manner being rooted to their pasts. Therefore the events of the past are crucial to the understanding of the both of them in this present. This idea that Penn Warren uses adds depth to the already complex image of both Jack and Willie. Though a story about the rise and conflicts of a political figure, Willie, Jack emerges as the focal point of this story to show his development from the past into creating his own future.
Where Men Win Glory is an ironic euphemism for war. The title is ironic because there is nothing glorious about war or the way it ended Pat Tillman’s beautiful life. Jon Krakauer orchestrates this masterpiece with his diligently, articulated descriptions and with a timeline sewn together from the threads of two worlds. The author’s style can best be characterized by his challenging, precise diction and his ability to fluently intervene pertinent quotes and facts that further persuade the reader toward his cause. Throughout the book, the author’s tone harnesses resentment towards the militant hierarchy; for through its ingenuousness, deceit, and manipulation, the military uses Pat’s death as propaganda to bolster the war’s support. Furthermore, the military covers up the fact that Tillman was a victim of fratricide, and it deceives the nation into believing Tillman’s end was a valiant fight against insurgents. When the truth is exposed and pursued by Dannie - Pat’s mother - the army destroys evidence and pleads guilty to ignorance as a rebuttal. This book is molded by three prodigious aspects that help to illustrate Pat’s life story. The carelessness of war, importance of family, and enhancement through change were all important ingredients that created a virtuous life. Each theme, in addition, challenges me personally to reassess the facts I have been fed and the reality that I have been presented. By doing so, I can achieve a sound base of knowledge and an intellectual prowess capable of challenging all facts presented.
While reading the fiction book, Good Kings Bad Kings I realized that there was a strong connection between what actually happened back in history to those with mental and physical disabilities. Even though the book was wrote to entertain, it also had me thinking about history. For example, while reading through the book I would relate back to some of the readings we read in class. These readings were “An Institutional History of Disability” and "Disability and Justification of Inequality in American History". Some of the key things that, also, stood out to me were the way the youth were treated, how workers were treated, how ableism was presented, and why people were put in these facilities.
A true war story blurs the line between fact and fiction, where it is neither true nor false at the same time. What is true and what is not depends on how much you believe it to be. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” from the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the author provides various definitions to how the validity of a war story can be judged. The entire chapter is a collection of definitions that describe the various truths to what a true war story is. Unlike O’Brien, who is a novelist and storyteller, David Finkel, the author of “The Good Soldiers”, is a journalist whose job is to report the facts. Yet in the selection that we read, chapter nine, Finkel uses the convention of storytelling, which relies heavily on the stories the combat troops tell each other or him personally. Finkel attempts to give an unbiased view of the Iraq war through the stories of the soldiers but in doing so, Finkel forfeits the use of his own experiences and his own opinions. From O’Brien’s views on what a true war story is combined with my own definitions, I believe that Finkel provides a certain truth to his war stories but not the entire truth.
Power relationships in Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones have been represented in various ways in the text’s and my own context. Through the representation of the Lus and Jasper Jones, racial power has been reflected in the context of the text being the 1960s. In the contemporary context, sexual power has been further reinforced through the point of view of Charlie and the death of Laura Wishart in the plot. Political power has been challenged in my current context as well as in the text’s context through the characterisation of Pete Wishart and the Sarge. Together with the changing society, power relationships are also changing and thus, over time there certainly will be changes to who hold the power in these relationships.
On theme of August Wilson’s play “King Hedley II” is the coming of age in the life of a black man who wants to start a new life and stay away from violence. Wilson wrote about the black experience, and the struggle that many black people faced and that is seen “King Hedley II” because there are two different generations portrayed in King Hedley II and Elmore. Reporting the African American encounter in the twentieth century, Wilson's cycle of plays, including a play for every decade. The African-American group's relationship to its own particular history is a critical component in the play.
All the King’s Men, written by Robert Penn Warren, is set deep in the south during the 1930’s. This is a story of the rise and fall of a political titan. Willie Stark comes from poverty to become the governor of his state. He forces his enemies into submission by blackmails, repeated threats, and bullies them. He creates a series of liberal reforms that lay heavy tax burdens on the rich and lifts the money issue off of the poor farmers. His foil character Sam MacMurfee persistently searches for way to ruin the career of Willie Starks. Sam MacMurfee has thugs and powerful political allies deep in his pockets. The two characters remind the reader of corrupt figures in politics such as the famous Boss Tweed.
Ellison, Ralph. "Battle Royal." Literature: an introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama. 9th ed and Interactive ed. Eds. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 555-566.
As Jack and Willie’s friendship developed so did Anne Stanton, Jack’s first love, and Willie Stark’s. Anne Stanton is an unfortunate woman who has no respect and throws herself at the most successful man she can find. As a political figure, Willie should lay low on the media, but that is not the case. Willie and Anne’s affair becomes known to their closest friends and results in murders and suicides. Was it really worth risking death over life? Willie’s affair with Anne is the most scandalous considering she is the daughter of the ex- governor. In the beginning of Warren’s drama filled novel, Willie was portrayed as a good man; a man of the people. Cass, on the other hand, did not become a good person till after his affair with Annabelle, due to his escalated feeling of guilt. Willie’s Cass Mastern episode changed him from good to evil unlike Cass’s positive evil to good
J.F. Powers displays a situation which convicts sympathy in readers for the main character, Mr. Newman, without becoming sentimental himself. Powers’ depressive social reality constructs a small but potent sadness in readers by sharing Mr. Newman’s unwanted experience and his thoughts about what is happening to him. Powers never directly analyzes Mr. Newman’s thoughts, but states them simply and accompanies them with adjectives that create a small, grey puff of sadness around them in readers’ minds. This puff expands into a larger cloud as the story continues and readers develop a greater empathy for Mr. Newman, and it ends in a full blown rain storm when we are let down by the ending, in which we know that Mr. Newman will not be able to keep
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
Throughout the ages, men and women have been at the heart of myths and legends, evolving into tragic heroes in large part due to the embellishment bestowed upon them over the ages. From Odysseus and Achilles to Brutus, Hamlet, and King Lear, epic poems have revolved around the tragic hero. Pat Tillman was a man of many aptitudes and virtues, never satisfied by the mediocre, striving for more adventure, more meaning, in his tragically short time on Earth, and personifying the phrase carpe diem. Even Pat Tillman had tragic flaws; his unwillingness to be typical, his undying loyalty to family and country, and his curiously concrete set of morals amalgamated to set in motion Tillman’s eventual death. These, whatever the outcome might have been, are not by any means, the archetypical tragic flaws. They are, as Jon Krakauer later described, “tragic virtues.” Where Men Win Glory is not solely a tribute to Pat Tillman. What makes it truly unique is its exhaustively comprehensive history preceding Tillman’s death, and equally essential, the events that transpired following his death, including the cover-ups, scandals, corruption, falsified documents, indignities, and lies that facilitated, also, in emphasizing the core themes, of which Tillman was the epitome. Tillman’s fidelity and devotion to the people whom he loved, the use of misinformation and cants surrounding his death, and others’ responses to what Tillman considered paramount in his life all played a key role in the tragedy of a man who won glory.
In contemporary America, the blacks have searched for companionship, success, and freedom, both physical and mental. Even after several years of [the] abolition of slavery, the blacks were not able to see [a white=whites] eye-to-eye. They were still [a puppet=puppets] for the white men?s show. During this era, several blacks tried to achieve success and bring themselves up to the level of whites by conforming to their direct or indirect, reasonable or unreasonable, and degrading or respectful commands. [Focus more on the rebellion/conformity aspects and the specifics of the story as you explain the issue.] In this chapter (?Battle Royal?) of [the] novel [?Invisible Man,?=title format] the narrator conforms to all humiliating orders to get a chance to express his views on ?social equality? and ?social responsibility?. Good thesis statement. The first chapter is like the worst nightmare for the narrator who is a young, graduating Negro boy. He timid[ly] and obedient[ly] comes to a white men?s gathering in a Southern town, where he is to be awarded a scholarship. Together with several other Negroes he is rushed to the front of the ballroom, where a [blonde frightens them by dancing in the nude=ambiguous. They are not afraid of her. They are afraid of the white men who demand that they look at her. That could mean beatings or even death for black men in times past]. Blindfolded, the Negro boys stage a "battle royal," a brawl in which they batter each other to the drunken shouts of the whites. After such [a] humiliating and ghastly experience, the terrified boy delivers a prepared speech of gratitude to his white benefactors.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
This novel is mainly about the rise and fall of the political figure Willie Stark told through the eyes of his business associate and friend Jack Burden. Willie stark in his early political career is all for helping the people and trying to do what is best for them. As he gains power and the trust of his people he soon becomes corrupt by the evils of success.
Wilson, M. & Clark, R. (n.d.). Analyzing the Short Story. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.limcollege.edu/Analyzing_the_Short_Story.pdf [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014].