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ON WILLIE STARK AS POLITICAL LEADER
Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men1 tells the story of two men, Jack Burden, the book’s narrator, and Willie Stark, Jack’s friend and boss. Because my focus is on the politics of the novel, Jack Burden will appear only occasionally in this paper. This approach does not do justice to the richness of the novel, for as Jack himself says, his story and Willie’s story are really one story. With this limitation in mind, I now turn to a review of Willie Stark’s career.
Willie Stark, the political protagonist of All the King’s Men, was a reluctant but earnest young politician who had returned quickly to private life after his initial effort to achieve reform at the local level failed. Through a matter of chance, he returned to the public eye, became convinced to run for governor of the state, and was used by a political machine in an effort to undermine its opposition and ensure its continuation in office. During the course of this......

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Approximate Word Count: 7131
Approximate Pages: 29 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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