All the King's Men

Jack Burden is the narrator and protagonist of All the King’s Men, and more than anyone, he witnesses the scope of Willie’s rise to and fall from power. He is very involved in Willie’s operation, conducting much of the research Willie uses for blackmail, including research that has tragic consequences, like the death of Judge Irwin. The moral and ethical ambiguity of politics leaves Jack in a state of confusion during the novel, and after he discovers the love affair between Anne Stanton, his love interest, and Willie, he falls into a state of cynicism and nihilism:

Many things happened, and that man did not know when he had any responsibility for them and when he did not. There was, in fact, a time when he came to believe that nobody had any responsibility for anything and there was no god but the Great Twitch (435).

Jack comes to believe that there is no guiding meaning to life, and he lets this belief guide him through the tragic events of Judge Irwin, Willie Stark, and Adam Stanton’s deaths. Because he never actually pulls a trigger, Jack convinces himself that he is not responsible for these tragic deaths, even though his actions in researching Judge Irwin and convincing Adam to be director of