Introduction
An enticing novel, All the King's Men played with the sequence of time to evoke a sense of mystery until the last page; however, told from the point of view of Jack Burden, the novel has a skewed perspective of all of the events.
Initially, I had wanted to write in a missing scene for the novel, in which Tiny Duffy is phoning Adam Stanton– a call that was the catalyst of the end of Willie Stark, Adam Stanton, and the novel itself. Interestingly enough, I found that Jack Burden's perspective had made it nearly impossible to properly write from either Tiny Duffy nor Adam Stanton's point of view. Then Willie Stark came to mind. One of the few people who Jack Burden does describe well and quote often enough is Willie Stark. From the novel, I had been able to grasp a good sense of Willie's character, personality, and (I do hope) voice.
This piece is the journal/blog of Mr. Willie Stark, otherwise known as the Boss. Embodying Willie Stark, I attempt to illustrate his change and growth as well as the events of his life by means of this blog. The first key event of his life is easily marrying Lucy– although he later has extramarital affairs, he genuinely loved her when they married and he ends up deciding to return to Lucy. I illustrate his initial sentiments after saying his marriage vows in the first post.
The next ten posts show his change:
from point A) my opinion of initial Willie Stark, a naïve and justice-seeking fool that only believes in the right way of doing things and outright opposes using J. H. Moore for constructing the schoolhouse,
to point B) a charismatic, busy, corrupt (yet still idealistic) Willie.
Perhaps the most obvious manner in which I tried to demonstrate the change is in the length, thoughtfulness, and effort (that Willie) would've put into each of the blog posts. Initial Willie Stark is thoughtful and open in his posts– his emotions and thoughts clearly come across in the lengthy posts. But as Willie gets more and more involved in becoming governor his posts resort to short planner schedules or notes he might have quickly typed up in his spare time between events and work. (And while the schedules and notes are short, I did my best to emulate Willie's personality and voice.)
Interestingly, I had decided to insert a direct quote from the novel under Willie's "I Don't Care Anymore" post. While I had felt that Willie wouldn't have the time or the heart to comment more that just "A man don't have to be Governor" from all the disappointment he had suffered in one night, his speech the next day in front of the Upton people had been very telling of his own emotions and personality. It was only right that I included a "transcript from the speech at Upton."
Finally, as Willie suffers the shock from news of Tom's paralysis and the helplessness he feels from not being able to influence any aspect of Tom's health, Willie writes a longer, more thoughtful (and his last) post reflecting his thoughts on the accident.
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TO ENHANCE AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE BLOG, please hover over each post and read the tags to the right side of each post. The tags include lingering comments Willie Stark might have had after writing or name people that were mentioned in his posts. Also, please note that the more current posts are closer to the top. Scrolling downwards goes back in time.
PLEASE, click the "Link" link in the navigation to the left sidebar to view other character(s)' blog(s).