Human Nature in Penn Warrens All the Kings Men :: essays research papers

Princes deliverance princesses, they f every(prenominal) in love, conquer all evil and live merrily ever after. While perhaps this is the sort of story the literary predominant likes to read, according to Robert Penn Warren it is not reality. Penn Warren wrote his 1946 novel, all in all the Kings Men as a realistic and satiric play on the life of the real historical politician, Huey Long. Among his other achievements of being an author, poet, and scholar, Penn Warren kindle also be considered something of a policy-making philosopher. In forming one of his theories, he directly contradicts the ideas of philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau who believed that human nature was good and it was a bring down society that made an evil person. In contrast, Penn Warren uses his writing to declare oneself that the only reason society is corrupt is that it was developed by an inherently evil mankind. The idea of a carnal man is illustrated in All the Kings Men through theories present ed by Penn Warrens colorful cast of principle characters. Many characters throughout the book, the most prevalent being the cynical narrator, Jack Burden, allude to the massive struggle for mogul that ensues, as well as the inevitable decay thereof among the semipolitical giants in All the Kings Men. While Jack gives the dissimulation of imperviousness, he is sensitive to the signals even as he excuses them. Doesnt it all boil down to this? If the government of this state for quite a broad meter had been doing anything for the folks in it, would Starkbe making so many short cuts to get something through to make up for the time lost all these years in not getting something done? (125). Jack recognizes that men are corruptible by power, but he justifies this because of the results corruption seems to produce. By the end, however, he comes to better realize that the results are not really auspicious. Power can be used to strive toward decorous goals, and often those goals are achieved to much acclaim, but the end result seldom comes to a positive effect.Similar to Jacks conclusion, the main political figure in the story, Willie Stark, suggests that his corruption is irrelevant because it is justified by his accomplishments. Its land that makes the grass grow. A diamond aint a thing in the world but a piece of dirt that got awful hotIt all depends on what you do with the dirt (45).