All the King's Men Discussion Continued

 

In Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, I noticed that many of the characters transformed from nice honest people into cruel and heartless people as time went on. Jack Burden is one of the people that transformed from a nice and honest man into an inconsiderate cruel guy. He was originally a nice sweet kid that loved his mother, but as time went on he started betraying the people that took care of him. Jack Burden was tasked with the burden of finding useful information that Willie Stark could use to blackmail Judge Irwin. The judge helped take care of Jack Burden and always treated him nicely. Yet instead of lying to Stark and telling him that there was no "dirt" on the judge, Jack Burden tried his hardest to find out anything wrong that the judge did in the past. Jack Burden demonstrated that he has changed into a "backstabber" as time went on. Throughout All the King's Men, Willie Stark's actions demonstrated his transformation from a caring and nice guy into a cruel and corrupt man. Originally Willie Stark was a good person, which was seen when he tried to change which company constructed the school so that the state could save costs. Also, Stark tried to change the construction company to prevent the governor from using nepotism to make his cousin's company be responsible for the construction of the school. Furthermore, Willie Stark truly cared about the common person at the start of his political ambitions, but he was eventually corrupted and lost his kind-hearted intentions. Once Willie Stark had gotten elected as governor, he started trying to "find dirt" on people and had started cheating on his wife without other women. He started blackmailing other politicians to get his way with people and made them conform to his ideas and goals. Willie Stark prevented his own impeachment by insuring that all of his opponents would do as he said through the use of blackmail. Even the people that tried to impeach Willie Stark were truly amazed by his actions. Also, Willie Stark was a unfaithful man and cheated on his wife Lucy with Sadie Burke. All of these corrupt actions turned Willie Stark from an honest kind-hearted man into a corrupt and cruel guy. Furthermore, Cass Mastern also transformed from an innocent an kind man into a "backstabber". Mastern was originally just a youth that was looking for friendship and advice from Duncan Trice. Duncan Trice tried to give good advice to Master and he helped Mastern out frequently. Yet Cass Mastern betrayed his loyal friend Duncan Trice by sleeping with Annabelle Trice.  Mastern's affair with Annabelle Trice had caused Duncan Trice to commit suicide.  Although many of the characters in All the King's Men started off as good people,  they changed into cruel and corrupted people.