He later realized there was no one right answer to the world's problems source. Nonetheless, geography plays a huge role in All the King's Men. While Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and California are all mentioned, the state in which the bulk of the novel is set is never named.
Still, by process of elimination, it has to be Louisiana. We also need a southern state which fronts on the Gulf of Mexico since we know Burden's Landing fronts the Gulf. That means either Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Texas. It can't be Texas or Mississippi because Jack goes to both of those places from where he lives.
The geography just doesn't fit for Florida. Plus, there's no denying that this novel has lot's to do with Huey Long, former Governor of Louisiana. But why is Warren so coy about the setting of his novel? We can think of two reasons. The first is to emphasize that this story is a piece of fiction, and not a piece of history. A second reason would be to stress that the state of politics and racism in the s and 30s is not a "Louisiana problem," but rather one that affects the entire South.
Cass Mastern and Annabelle Trice have their love affair from , when Cass is 21 years old and Annabelle is This is some ten years before the end of the Civil War. If it weren't for this story, slavery wouldn't quite make it as a theme in All the King's Men , even though in the s and s fifty years after the end of the Civil War in Louisiana we still see the evidence and impacts of slavery.
Jack remembers picnicking with Adam and Anne Stanton, and swimming with Anne. He remembers arguing with his mother in over his decision to go to the State University instead of to Harvard. That night in , Jack, his mother, and the Young Executive go to Judge Irwin's for a dinner party; the assembled aristocrats talk politics, and are staunchly opposed to Willie Stark's liberal reforms.
Jack is forced to entertain the pretty young Miss Dumonde, who irritates him. When he drives back to Willie's hotel, he kisses Sadie Burke on the forehead, simply because she isn't named Dumonde. On the drive back, Jack thinks about his parents in their youth, when his father brought his mother to Burden's Landing from her home in Arkansas.
In Willie's room, hell is breaking loose: MacMurfee's men in the Legislature are mounting an impeachment attempt on Byram B. White, the state auditor, who has been involved in a graft scandal. Willie humiliates and insults White, but decides to protect him. Willie orders Jack to dig up dirt on MacMurfee's men in the Legislature, and he begins frenetically stumping the state, giving speeches during the day and intimidating and blackmailing MacMurfee's men at night. Stunned by his aggressive activity, MacMurfee's men attempt to seize the offensive by impeaching Willie himself.
But the blackmailing efforts work, and the impeachment is called off before the vote can be taken. He resents them, and he resents his mother for bringing them into their home. He also resents his mother because she made life so miserable that her husband, Ellis Burden, decided to leave her and young Jack. But Jack's resentment of his mother is tempered. She is cool and beautiful, and he admires the way that she handles men.
He would like to have her approval and her full attention, but he wants those things on his terms, not on hers. That is, he wants his mother to accept him without question even though — or perhaps because — he works for Willie Stark.
Jack's resentment of his father is more absolute. Jack cannot forgive the Scholarly Attorney he rarely uses his father's name for walking out on him and his mother. Even more, Jack cannot forgive his father for his religious views, which he mocks every time he thinks of them. Indeed, Jack cannot understand his father, his father's actions, or his father's views; they simply make no sense to him.
In short, Jack seems to feel — although he does not seem at all aware of this feeling — that he was, in a sense, abandoned when his father left and when his mother remarried. He could not understand those events then; no one gave him any sense of security when those things happened; and he has not yet accepted them at the age of thirty-five.
As a result, he is still adrift, with no personal sense of direction or of belonging. Indeed, he works for Willie Stark because Willie is an active and vital force; it is Willie's energy that gives Jack a sense of purpose and direction rather than anything within himself. On his own, Jack Burden reacts, rather than acts, and his reactions are usually negative.
When Jack gets back to the capital, he is immediately energized and given immediate, explicit orders by Willie Stark, because a political crisis has occurred: a threat of impeachment against Byram White, the state auditor, is being rumored because of White's taking bribes; the threat of White's impeachment grows, and finally it develops into an attempt to impeach Willie Stark himself.
Willie's power is threatened, and he is not willing to relinquish that power, now that he has it. Thus, although the Willie Stark of this chapter has his roots in the Willie Stark whom we saw in the second chapter, he is quite a different person, one who has learned his lessons very well. The Willie Stark of the second chapter fiercely believed in the dignity of human beings and in their rationality; both in his campaign against the schoolhouse contract and in his first campaign for governor, he tried to use "the facts" and a carefully reasoned plan of action, assuming that the public would respond to those and vote on that basis.
Then, Willie was blinded by the prospect of being governor, which he believed to be a lofty and noble position, one to which a person brought one's best qualities. By the end of that first campaign, however, Willie had learned a great deal about the political realities of his state. Now, not only has he learned his lessons well, but he has adapted to these conditions with a vengeance. He will not be treated again the way that he was treated earlier.
Willie Stark, as governor, acts expediently. He makes plans to immediately right the wrongs that rankled him and bring the benefits of government to the people from his part of the state — to his kind of people. And in order to do so, he is willing to take shortcuts. He has rammed bills through the legislature and stacked the state Supreme Court with his men to make sure that those bills are upheld.
He permits graft — in a controlled way — because it helps to get things done. He has increased taxes and the cost of leasing state lands in order to have the necessary money to accomplish the things which he wants done.
He has effectively shut the door on those people who previously received the benefits of the government. His actions have made him many enemies, and the evidence that Byram White has arranged for substantial profits through his ties with a real estate firm has given these enemies a vantage point from which to attack Willie.
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