Jan 1, 2010

All the King's Men | Themes

History
An overarching theme in All the King’s Men is history and how it affects the present. Structurally, the entire novel can be viewed as the history of Willie Stark’s political rise and fall, mimicking in many ways the rise and fall of the real-life southern governor Huey P. Long. Willie uses his associates’ personal histories to get them to do his bidding. He believes that all people have something in their past that they do not want known.

Warren places the history of Jack Burden’s search for identity and maturity alongside Willie’s history. Burden...