Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men “If the human race didn’t remember anything it would be perfectly happy" (44). Thus runs one of the early musings of Jack Burden, the protagonist of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. Throughout the story, however, as Jack gradually opens his eyes to the realities of his own nature and his world, he realizes that the human race cannot forget the past and survive. Man must not only remember, but also embrace the past, because it teaches him the truth about himself and enables him to face the future. As he begins to understand the people in his life and their actions, Jack learns that one can rarely make sense of an event until that event has become a part of the past, to be reconstructed and eventually understood in memory. T.S. Eliot expresses this idea in “The Dry Salvages”: “We had the experience but missed the meaning, / And approach to the meaning restores the experience / In a different form, beyond any meaning / We can assign to happiness" (194). Only by deliberately recalling the past can one understand the metaphysical and spiritual significance of his experiences. For this reason, Jack cannot make sense of the fateful day of Willie Stark’s murder until “long after…when I had been able to gather the pieces of the puzzle up and put them together to see the pattern" (Warren 407). The pattern of the past reveals the pattern of fallen human nature, thus opening man’s eyes to his own folly and enabling him to grow in wisdom. Man must not only remember his past, but also choose to remember it as it really happened—for, to again quote Eliot, “What might have been is an abstraction" (175). Fantasizing about an abstract, idealized past will never give success i... ... middle of paper ... ...176). History provides a moral and spiritual point of reference for each new epoch. In All the King’s Men, Jack Burden the historian discovers that the past, honestly considered, does not deceive, nor do its vivid object lessons lead men astray. As Jack replays in his memory the actions of the characters (including himself) in the drama of his life, he grows to understand the roles played by those characters in his spiritual development, and to love them for their true nature. By contemplating the past in this manner, Jack builds out of truth and time a foundation that will raise him to stand strong in an uncertain future. Works Cited Eliot, T. S. Collected Poems 1909-1962. Harcourt: New York, 1963. Warren, Robert Penn. All the King's Men. New York: Grosset, 1946. Weaver, Richard. Ideas Have Consequences. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1948.
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.
Memories can in a way define who we are and how we progress through life. Memories can be a pathway to either follow the straight and narrow or to have us decide which fork of the road to take. Past memories can help to identify a person and can effect the future that follows. Through the journy of self discovery, Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow and Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory suggest one must relive past and present memories to find their true identity in the future.
In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind stresses the importance of memory and how memories shape a person’s identity. Stories such as “In Search of Lost Time” by Proust and a report by the President’s Council on Bioethics called “Beyond Therapy” support the claims made in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
own repression of memory: “My friends’ pasts are vague to me...any one of us could
The change someone can endure through their lives is crazy. One day, you can be the most beloved person in the universe, but could also wake up and be one of the most hated. The change that ambition turns Willie Starks into in “All the King’s Men”, can be traced back to“The Great Gatsby” Gatsby is content and happy with his life until the day he catches a glimpse of his love Daisy, from then on Gatsby had this sudden urge of desire of having to have Daisy. This desire of wanting Daisy hid the fact that it wasn’t ever going to happen between them, and in the end, ends up killing Gatsby. Although Willie doesn’t change appearance wise, the obstacles that he goes thru during the story shapes and forms his personality, and transforms himself into the new Willie Stark. In the Novel “All the King’s Men” by Robert Penn Warren, The hurting of one’s own, can be blinded thru the desire and ambition to be at the top.
Thesis: “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy uses motifs to create meaning in the novel by working with Memory vs. Past, in doing so creates a confusion with The Man telling The Boy the supposed “Past Memories.”
Sometimes the past can be very painful, our loved ones that we lost and painful memories that we had that keeps hunting us. We sometimes try to forget those painful memories from the past thinking that it is ok to forget them and move on without facing them. As what Grudin, Robert says “This uneasy relationship with a rich and voluminous intellectual resource is a
One of the most important lessons I have learned recently relates to a Spanish class I attended where we learned about nostalgia and how it affects an individual’s progress. In the experience, I realized that nostalgia is a waste of time because of a few reasons I will discuss in this paper. I learned that nostalgia is a heightened sentimental longing for the past. In the experience, I realized that whenever an individual consciously or unconsciously tolerates a thought related to the past or a history that was wither sad or happy they end up wasting significance time on an issue that might never change.
They say memory is the first to go and I am beginning to believe that is true. Sometimes the more I try to remember the ‘good ‘ol days’ the more elusive they become. Or I guess I should say the more elusive the facts become. In this reading I can appreciate the writers comment about distinguishing between what happened and what might have happened. I too can blur that line at times as I think we all can and do.
Memories generate a breakdown of an individual’s selfhood. In addition, memories embody unmistakable repercussions on the self. In the book Mind readings an Anthology for Writers by Gary Colombo, there are several essays that reveal how memories evoke individuals to doubt their ideas of selfhood. “The Inheritance of Tools” by Scott Russell Sanders, Sanders writes concerning his father’s passing and the strategies that he implements to survive his grief. “The Brown Wasps” by Loren Eiseley, Eiseley demonstrates why individuals conjure up memories in their imagination, his only reliable guide of happiness. Individuals hold fast to memories that take a lifetime to fabricate. “The Self and Society: Changes, Problems, and Opportunities” by Roy F. Baumeister makes use of many labels to justify selfhood. Baumeister examines the history of selfhood. The essays by Sanders, Eiseley, and Baumeister illustrate that situations shape unpredictable sets of memories that promote anxiety, and characterizes the selfhood. Memories and individual’s selfhood connect the past and present bringing about a paradox inspiring individuals to feel sane or manic. Frequently memories are simply figments of the imagination. In addition, in life, individuals have conflicts of his or her “inner self” resulting in a collision of the selfhood.
For the most part, although Ruth suffers a painful past, she picks up her father’s strengths, discards his misconduct, and becomes a wiser mother to teach her children core value to succeed. Ruth’s memories reveal that her prior struggles contribute to her later growth. As George Santayana pointed out, when people reflect on their past, especially via their defeat and agony, they can gain insight by understanding how problems developed and how others approached them. These reflections enlighten individuals on who they are today and where they are going tomorrow. Remembering the past empowers people to live through present and to safeguard future.
The title of this piece, “Remembered Morning,” establishes what the speaker describes in the stanzas that follow as memory; this fact implies many themes that accompany works concerning the past: nostalgia, regret, and romanticism, for instance. The title, therefore, provides a lens through which to view the speaker’s observations.
“So we beat on boats against the current borne back ceaselessly into the past”- F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini; two characters constantly live their lives looking back to the past, hindering them in their lives in the present. Amir is overcome with guilt because of past actions, making him unable to live in the present. Sohrab, on the other hand, is affected by the past so much it cripples him. Amir and Sohrab display the theme of the constant persistence of the past; as each character finds their identity in the past.
She also states that we often lie about our memories, but not intentionally we lie because we feel we must. Furthermore, Hampl illustrates the benefits altering memories can have on writing a memoir, as she is, “forced to admit that memoir is not a matter of transcription” (101) meaning that writing memoirs often require some imagination. To summarize the above, one can see the effects that memories can have on the self-identity and see it’s