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All the King's Men: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Literature.AllTheKingsMen 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Literature.AllTheKingsMen, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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{{work}}
''All The King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren, which won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize. It chronicles the life of radically-liberal (in point of fact, populist-socialist) Louisiana governor Willie "the Boss" Stark (in the book and films)/Talos (in the never-properly-completed play), through the eyes of [[Lemony Narrator]] and eventual main character Jack Burden. In particular, it covers Stark's two campaigns for governor, his [[Your Cheating Heart|chronic infidelity]], and his [[Well
Made into a film two times, in 1949 and 2006.
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=== This book contains examples of: ===
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|The Boss and Adam Stanton both die, but Jack has gotten over his nihilism, accepted the past, and is even married to Anne Stanton. Lucy Stark also seems to have dealt with grief fairly well by raising Tom's probable son..}}
* [[Deep South]]: Although [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|it's never quite made clear which state the novel is set]], it is ''very'' obviously Southern, and ''probably'' a fictionalized Louisiana.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Duncan Trice, Mortimer L. Littlepaugh, {{spoiler|Judge Irwin}}.
* [[Gold Digger]]: Jack's mom is indicated to have been this and a [[Lady Drunk]]. {{spoiler|In reality both are fueled by her suppressed love for Judge Irwin, who is Jack's real father.}}
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** Jack has an earlier set of these called "The Great Sleep."
* [[Ironic Nickname]]: Tiny Duffy isn't.
* [[Is This Thing Still On?]]
* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Duffy.}}
* [[Lemony Narrator]]: Jack, at first.
* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: {{spoiler|Jack's real father is Judge Irwin. Jack doesn't learn this until after Irwin's death.}}
* [[Parental Substitute]]: Irwin for Jack. {{spoiler|Subverted in that Irwin is Jack's actual father}}
* [[The Pollyanna]]: Lucy, who ignores her husband's infidelity and assorted antics {{spoiler|at first}}.
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* [[Trauma Conga Line]]: {{spoiler|It starts with the suicide of Judge Irwin, continues with Tom getting paralyzed, and ends with Adam Stanton and Willie Stark killing each other. It's a [[Trauma Conga Line]] for everyone in the story, but is worst for Jack, Anne, and Sadie. Jack found out that Irwin was his father right after his death, Anne was the instrument that was used to set Adam off on Willie, and Sadie being dumped after Tom's paralysis was what led her to give Tiny Duffy the ammo to kill Willie.}}.
* [[True Companions]]: See [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] above.
* [[Very Loosely Based
* [[Villainous Glutton]]: Tiny Duffy again. Also Willie Stark, [[Grey and Grey Morality|for a given value of "villainous"]].
* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]]: Warren never makes clear what state ''All The King's Men'' takes place in (if it even exists), other than that it's Southern. However, the parallels to Huey Long are sufficient to get most people to conclude that it's Louisiana.
** It borders on [[No Communities Were Harmed]], but the fact that it's never identified, rather than given a different name, is sufficient to keep it on this side of the trope.
* [[Wide Eyed Idealist]]: Adam Stanton. Willie before Sadie revealed he was Harrison's Dupe.
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