Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
All The King's Men: History's Importance - Term Papers

All The King's Men: History's Importance

Throughout All the King's Men, history plays an important role in the
motivations and lives of all the characters. History's importance is most
noticeable, not surprisingly, in the story main characters - Willie Stark
and Jack Burden - whose lives focus on and, in some cases, depend upon
history and how they relate themselves to it. While Willie Stark views
history as a tool with which to manipulate people for his own ends, an
attitude resulting in his own destruction, Jack Burden's view of history
changes over time and eventually allows him to accept his relationship to
the past and, therefore, present. Since each man has such a differing view
it is no wonder that history becomes ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

on it and made you and me and George Washington
and mankind blessed in faculty and apprehension. It all depends on what you
do with the dirt."1 In this case, Stark is referring to the past as dirt -
something to be used in many ways. The way he chooses to use it of course
is as blackmail; "Then he would lean suddenly forward, at the man, and say,
not slow and easy now, `God damn you, do you know what I can do to you?'
And he could too. For he had the goods."2 Thus history is important to
Stark as the device by which he maintains power.

Both Stark and Burden use history differently according to the way it
figures into their lives. To Stark, ultimate power being paramount, history
is a thing to be used in the manipulation of others to achieve his own ends.
For example, when Judge Irwin decides to endorse Murphy's candidate for the
senate, rather than Stark's, Stark views it as the perfect occasion for the
manipulation of the judge through blackmail, both directly and ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.

Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE:

APA
MLA
Chicago
Turabian

All The King's Men: History's Importance. (2007, January 12). Retrieved November 28, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/All-The-Kings-Men-Historys-Importance/58596

"All The King's Men: History's Importance." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 12 Jan. 2007. Web. 28 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/All-The-Kings-Men-Historys-Importance/58596>

"All The King's Men: History's Importance." Essayworld.com. January 12, 2007. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/All-The-Kings-Men-Historys-Importance/58596.

JOIN NOW

Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays

PAPER DETAILS

Added: 1/12/2007 05:22:33 PM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1236
Pages: 5

Save |

Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS

Save and find your favorite essays easier