All The Kings Men- by Robert Penn Warren
1st Quarter – Period D
Crey Bankes
Moodle Entry:
September 5-11th, 2011
I have chosen “All The Kings Men” for my first quarter literature reading assignment. The book was written by Robert Penn Warren, has received the Pulitzer Prize and is 661 pages in length. When searching for my first quarter reading, I looked through books of authors that I am familiar with – Dickens, Steinbeck and Paulsen . I chose my first quarter book because it is focused on early American politics and corruption. This will be the first time I have read a book on this topic.
This literary fiction begins in Mason City during 1936. The main characters introduced in the story are Willie Stark (Boss), Lucy Stark, Sugar Boy and Tommy (Willie’s son’s) and Mr. Duffy. The main character Jack Burden is narrating the story. The story begins with the main characters entering Mason City.
Willie Stark is the Governor and very well known to the locals. Although popular by political status, generally people did not like him. The first scandal involved Willie blackmailing the local judge Irwin to not run for Senate. The intimidation did not work on the judge. Willie tried to use his power to unveil a corrupt contract bid in the town for the school construction. He hoped to use this situation to gain votes in his election. The town people went opposite of Willies guidance on the construction. Willie did not get support and lost the election. He went back to the farm and continued to study law.
2 years after losing the first Senate election, the construction of the schoolhouse was not up to code and children were killed and crippled by a fire drill. This event gave Willie power and trust in the people of Mason City. He decided to use this change of luck and re-run for Senate.
Moodle Entry:
September 12th-18th, 2011
An additional main character introduced this week during my reading is Sadie Burke. Sadie is a campaign manager helping Willie with running for governor. With the help of Duffy, Sadie and Duffy influenced Willie to run for office. Jack Burden, working for the Chronicle covers the campaign trail of Willie. Early into the road trip, Willie finds out that the only reason they have him running is to be a sacrificial lamb and throw off the votes in the rural areas. Willie, who historically does not drink, gets completely drunk.
He is due to give a speech at a rural town (Uptown, Louisiana). Willie feels that nobody listens to him while he gives his speeches. They should care but he thinks that they don’t care. He wants to be Governor so bad that he lies awake and thinks about it. Although corrupt in his own way, in this position he could help the hick people get equal opportunities. After realizing he is being used, he gives the best speech of his life- the truth. He tells the hick towns that the city folks want distraction so that they can vote in the rich and keep the poor without things. His dream is to build roads, schools, bridges and universities so that all people in the state of Louisiana have equal rights as the rich. His campaign quote to the rural / hick towns was “To nail em up”. What he meant by this was to overpower the rich vote and make a change in the state.
Moodle Entry:
September 19th-25th, 2011
Politically the rich wanted to continue power in the state of Louisiana. The Chronicle, a local news outlet has historically supported Murphy. The media coverage by Jack Burden had been predominately on Willie Stark. Jack’s boss warned him that he was going against the grain and to watch out. Willie continued to travel to rural areas and gain support based on his desire to bring things to the poor people of Louisiana. Willie eventually won the state Governor seat by the largest margin ever recorded. Although he won, none of the votes came from people of political status or wealth.
Jack’s role in covering Willie’s campaign deeply upset his family, especially his mother. She declared that Willie Starks has waged a war against the rich folks of Louisiana and reminded Jack of his upbringings. Willie Starks campaign was to take money from oil and utility companies (state funds) to bring opportunities to the poor. His proposal was to tax the rich more heavily and to tax a portion of the state funds to build the bridges, schools and universities. Jack Burden reminded his family that Willie Starks would never have been voted in if the government would have done something sooner to support the under privileged. With all of the animosity that Willie was causing among the politicians and wealthy, they united in efforts and started a mission to get Willie impeached from office.
Moodle Entry:
September 26th – October 8th, 2011
The initial impeachment efforts started with judge Irwin calling for a full investigation. Willie Stark and Jack Burden visit judge Irwin to influence him to stop the impeachment investigation. Irwin communicates to Willie Stark that he does not intimidate him. After judge Irwin said he was not intimidated, Willie tasked Jack to find dirt to blackmail Irwin with. The difficult part of this task is that judge Irwin raised Jack. He was a very close family friend. Judge Irwin married into an industrial family. He married Mebel Carruthers who came from a wealthy family. She died at age 33. Jack’s entire childhood was with Judge Irwin and his two children Adam and Ann Stanton.
The rich political party was trying to impeach Willie saying he had crooked behavior. Willie Stark went out to the public and declared that his crooks were less crooks than the electrical companies, oil companies and political folks. It was publically known that Willie wasn’t the most honest man. He cheated on his wife with several women to include Sadie. Willie continued to coral the poor people to challenge the rich to assist in the funding of roads and the betterment of Louisiana. Jack Burden continued to look for blackmail information for Willie but was unsuccessful.
Moodle Entry:
October 9th- 16th, 2011
Jack continues to investigate Judge Irwin per Willies request. The hardest part of this assignment is that Jack grew up with Ann Stanton. He was in love with her. Jack finds out that Judge Irwin was taking bribes from electrical companies. The payoff for Judge Irwin was the position as the head of the banking council. Jack’s information about Judge Irwin came from the sister of Mr. Littlepaugh. He was the person that Judge Irwin replaced from the electrical company bribe. The sister had all the letters that described what was occurring. Although loyal to Willie, Jack did not tell him this information immediately.
Jack was failing in Willies eyes, he had to take his own action. Willie attempted to get close to Adam and Anne by offering Adam a job as director of Starks Medical Center and for Anne he donated money to her charity work. Willie felt that he could get to Judge Irwin through his children. This point in the book is when all goes bad.
Jack finds out through Sadie that Ann and Willie are together. This frustrates Jack because he was in love with her. Jack visits Judge Irwin and shows him the Littlepaugh letter and tells him to back off of the impeachment efforts.
Moodle Entry:
October 16th- 23rd, 2011
The end of the book was really dramatic. Three people end up dying. When Judge Irwin is confronted by Jack, he takes his own life verses being exposed as a corrupt man. When Jack’s mother is phoned about Judge Irwin’s death, she freaks out. She tells Jack that he has killed his own father. During this same time, Adam is told that the hospital was a scam to get money from the state and that he was being used. Adam refused to be embarrassed and went to the state impeachment hearing to confront Willie. At the end of the hearing, when Willie was not impeached, Adam took out a gun and shot him at the Louisiana state capital building. During his shooting, Adam was taken down by Sugarboy. Both Adam and Willie died that day.
The story had a lot of twist and turns. It was discovered that Sadie was the source of information to Adam. The entire evil plot was due to Sadie being jealous of Willie running with several women to include Ann Stanton. The story ended the way it began, in that people used Willie to get political power. Duffy was sworn in as the Governor and Sadie taking a spot I support of him. Although Willie was not the most honest man and had bad behaviors, his term in office did help the poor people of Louisiana.
These are all my blog posts in one.
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