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

Princes rescue princesses, they fall in love, conquer all nefariousness and live happily ever after. age perhaps this is the sort of account the literary public likes to read, according to Robert Penn warren it is non reality. Penn Warren wrote his 1946 novel, all(a) the Kings Men as a realistic and satiric play on the life of the real historical politician, Huey Long. Among his other achievements of creation an author, poet, and scholar, Penn Warren can also be considered something of a political philosopher. In forming one of his theories, he directly contradicts the ideas of philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau who believed that hu human nature was profound and it was a corrupt society that made an evil person. In contrast, Penn Warren uses his writing to suggest that the only reason society is corrupt is that it was demonstrable by an inherently evil mankind. The idea of a carnal man is illustrated in All the Kings Men through theories presented by Penn Warrens colorf ul cast of principle characters. Many characters throughout the book, the most prevalent being the cynical narrator, Jack Burden, allude to the coarse struggle for power that ensues, as well as the inevitable declination thereof among the political giants in All the Kings Men. While Jack gives the pretense 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 preferably a long time had been doing anything for the folks in it, would Starkbe making so many short cuts to get something done to practice 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 goal, however, he comes to better come across that the results are not really auspicious. Power can be use to strive toward worthy goals, and often those goals are achieved to much acc laim, but the end result seldom comes to a positive effect.Similar to Jacks conclusion, the m personal political figure in the story, Willie Stark, suggests that his corruption is irrelevant because it is confirm by his accomplishments. Its dirt 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).