Corruption and Innocence in

Robert Penn Warren’s Fiction

Steven D. Ealy

AN EPISODE IN Robert Penn Warren’s novel in All the King’s Men.2 Both novels revolve
Flood is emblematic of his understanding around the themes of power and corrup-
of human guilt and innocence. The tion. In All the King’s Men, Willie Stark’s
deputy warden is giving a tour of story is one of the rise and fall of a politi-
Fiddlersburg prison, and he recounts how cian; in At Heaven’s Gate, we learn of the
one of the sharpshooters in the prison fall and recovery of the financier Bogan
tower had cost him a guard. One day a Murdock.
trustee who was tending the prison gar- Willie Stark often has been taken to
den attacked and killed a guard with his represent political corruption at its most
sickle, and the sharpshooter in the tower blatant, but I will argue that the country
never fired on the prisoner. When con- boy Willie Stark is in fact a more morally
fronted, the sharpshooter said he was complicated character than that simple
afraid of hitting an innocent man. The view of him allows. By the same token,
deputy warden concludes the story, Bogan Murdock is also a more ambiguous
“‘Jesus Christ,’ I said, ‘a innocent man! character than at first appears.
There ain’t no innocent man!’”1 There are
no innocent men in the sense of “guilt-
All the King’s Men3
less” in Robert Penn Warren’s world.
There may be innocent men in the sense Jack Burden narrates the story of Willie
of “ignorant” or “naïve,” but generally Stark. Jack, a newspaperman sent by his
this innocence is a tack taken to avoid editor to get the lowdown on the un-
overt responsibility for actions or out- known Willie, becomes Willie’s friend,
comes one is somehow involved in. teacher, chronicler, and pupil. Willie Stark,
In the Modern Library introduction to often seen as a barely fictional portrayal
All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren of Huey Long, is the stereotypical south-
stated that Bogan Murdock, the dark but ern demagogue,4 using his political power
attractive presence around which the to accumulate benefits for himself and
action swirls in At Heaven’s Gate, was a his political allies. Even if this view of
prototype for Willie Stark, central figure Willie Stark is true as far as it goes, it does
not go far enough. Willie Stark is not a
STEVEN D. EALY is a Senior Fellow at Liberty Fund mindless political shark, ingesting what-
in Indianapolis. He is writing an intellectual ever smaller fish happen to swim in his
biography of Richard Weaver for the Modern way—he is a politician with a philosophy,
Thinker Series published by ISI Books. and that philosophy provides the foun-

Modern Age 139

dation for the action of the novel. slowly replaced by a more realistic or
Willie is an idealist turned utilitarian cynical view of life. Willie does not move
whose serious career in politics began to this philosophy immediately, but he
with an accident. As the County Trea- slides into it over the course of the novel.
surer of Mason County, Willie made the The evolution of Willie’s philosophy can
mistake of favoring the low bid on a school be seen in his campaign speeches, in the
construction project,5 a bid that would development of his sense of Realpolitik,
involve hiring Blacks to work on the con- and in his reflections on his political edu-
struction crews. Willie had gotten his job cation. During his first campaign for gov-
as County Treasurer because he was sup- ernor, his speeches were a combination
ported by the Chairman of the County of “facts and figures on the one hand” and
Commission, Dolph Pillsbury. But the stir of “fine sentiments on the other hand.”
Willie caused by supporting the low bid These sentiments, according to Jack Bur-
for a school construction project, a bid den, were “a faint echo, somewhat dulled
not supported by the Chairman and the by time, of the quotations copied out in
rest of the County Commission, cost his the ragged, boyish hand in the big ledger”
wife Lucy her teaching job, for she was (69) Willie had kept as a student.
fired, and cost Willie his position when he Willie’s speech changed dramatically
was defeated in his bid for re-election. when he learned—not that he would lose
After Willie’s electoral defeat, the Com- the race for governor, for he had already
mission awarded the school contract to a figured that out on his own—that he had
high bidder, who proceeded to cut cor- been gulled into entering the race in or-
ners and use inferior materials in the con- der to split “McMurfee’s hick vote” and
struction. During a fire drill at the school, thus ensure Harrison’s reelection. His
the emergency escape collapsed, killing message then became immediate and
three children in the accident. One con- simple: “Whatever a hick wants he’s got to
sequence of this accident was Willie’s do for himself.” (93) Willie withdrew from
political resurrection. The accident pro- the sham race and campaigned for his
vided Willie with a local identity as a former opponent McMurfee, arguing that
politician who stood for honesty and the hick vote should show its strength by
against corruption. As one of the grieving electing McMurfee and holding him ac-
parents cried at the funeral, “Oh, God, I am countable: “Yeah, nail him up if he don’t
punished for accepting iniquity and vot- deliver. Hand me the hammer and I’ll nail
ing against an honest man.” (65) Willie him.”
became known as that rarity among men, Willie addressed the crowds he spoke
an honest politician. to as “Friends, red-necks, suckers, and
Willie’s reputation for honesty led him fellow hicks,” (94) and delivered his
into his first race for governor. His hon- straightforward message in unmistakable
esty and small-town background made terms: “You are a hick and nobody ever
him the perfect tool for the urban helped a hick but the hick himself. Up
(Harrison) machine to use to split the there in town they won’t help you. It is up
rural vote and to keep the governorship to you and God, and God helps those who
away from a rural boss. Willie did not help themselves.” (95)
make a deal with the Harrison people—he Willie’s withdrawal and subsequent
simply believed Harrison’s crony Tiny support helped McMurfee win the elec-
Duffy when Duffy appealed to his politi- tion, but Willie had not surrendered. He
cal ideals and told him that he was the entered the next gubernatorial primary
savior of the state. (66) after McMurfee’s first term and unleashed
Willie’s honesty and naïveté were his newfound populism. As Jack Burden

140 Spring 2005

put it, “It wasn’t a primary. It was hell hospital he plans to build.6 Willie tells
among the yearlings and the Charge of the Jack that as soon as he consolidates power
Light Brigade and Saturday night in the in the legislature he is going to build a
back room of Casey’s saloon rolled into hospital.
one, and when the smoke cleared away I’m going to build me the God-damnedest,
not a picture still hung on the walls. And biggest, chromium-platedest, formaldehyde-
there wasn’t any Democratic party. There stinkingest free hospital and health center
was just Willie....” (97) Willie was elected the All-Father ever let live. Boy, I tell you, I’m
Governor in 1930. He was aided by Hugh going to have a cage of canaries in every
Miller, a man with “the eyes of a dreamer” room that can sing Italian grand opera and
and with “clean hands, pure heart, and no there ain’t going to be a nurse hasn’t won a
political past.” Miller was to be Attorney beauty contest at Atlantic City and every
General of the state, and represented the bedpan will be eighteen-carat gold and by
victory of clean government over corrupt God, every bedpan will have a Swiss music-
box attachment to play “Turkey in the Straw”
practices–business-as-usual political fa-
or “The Sextet from Lucia,” take your choice.
voritism. (139)
Despite this outer show of clean gov-
ernment, Willie’s campaign and adminis- Willie is determined to keep this hospi-
tration maintained some of the corrupt tal and clinic free from the dirty hands
practices of his opponents. His political that have infiltrated the rest of his admin-
realism, an understanding of the need to istration. Tiny Duffy, the Lieutenant Gov-
make deals, can be seen in the fact that ernor, wants to throw the contract to
behind the scenes he was willing to ac- Gummy Larson, MacMurfee’s biggest
cept assistance from many of Joe backer, to buy his support. (213) Finally
Harrison’s former supporters. (97) It is Willie is forced to make a deal with Larson,
further seen when Hugh Miller decides he but threatens Larson not to attempt to
must resign as Attorney General because cut corners in construction methods.
Willie is protecting the State Auditor from “Yeah, it’s arranged, but you—you leave
prosecution. (131-137) From Willie’s one window latch off, you leave one piece
standpoint, State Auditor Byram White is of iron out of that concrete, you put in one
just a tool to be used, like a calculator. extra teaspoon of sand, you chip one
(136) From Willie’s perspective, “You got piece of marble, and by God—by God—I’ll
to use what you’ve got. You got to use rip you open.” (362) At this point Willie
fellows like Byram, and Tiny Duffy, and still thinks of the hospital as his. After his
that scum down in the Legislature. You son Tom Stark is hurt in a football acci-
can’t make bricks without straw, and most dent, and Willie decides to name the hos-
of the time all the straw you got is second- pital after Tom, he reneges on the deal
hand straw from the cowpen. And if you with Gummy Larson. (386) Willie has be-
think you can make it any different, you’re come even more determined that the
crazy as a hoot owl.” (137) When Miller hospital will be built without the muck of
refuses to reconsider his resignation, dirty hands. At this point it becomes ever
Willie tells him, “You’re leaving me all more critical to Willie to engage the good
alone with the sons-of-bitches. Mine and doctor, Adam Stanton, in his hospital
the other fellow’s.” (13) enterprise.
Willie’s strategic use of “the sons of Willie’s evolution is also in evidence in
bitches,” however, does not wholly ob- his own account of his political educa-
scure his earlier commitment to good tion. Looking back on his education, Willie
government. The final, and greatest, captured his movement from simple inno-
legacy of his administration will be the cence to Realpolitik. Willie laughed about

Modern Age 141

his preparation for the bar examination. which is society, Doc, is never going to stop
doing business. Society is just going to cook
“I sure was a fool,” Willie said to me once,
up a new notion of what is right. Society is
talking about those times, “I thought you sure not ever going to commit suicide. At
had really to learn all that stuff. I thought
least, not that way and of a purpose. (257-58)
they meant for you to learn law. Hell, I got
down to that bar examination and I looked
at the questions and I nearly busted out Willie’s view of the law is much like his
laughing. Me sitting up there bearing down view of morality. When Hugh Miller tells
on those books, and then they gave me Willie that he is resigning, Willie says that
those little crappy questions. A corn-field the law is “like a single-bed blanket on a
nigger could have answered them if he’d double bed and three folks in the bed and
been able to spell. I ought to have looked
a cold night.... The law is always too short
twice at some of the lawyers I’d seen and I’d
have known a half-wit could pass it. But, oh,
and too tight for growing humankind. The
no, I was hell-bent on learning me some law.” best you can do is do something and then
(67-68) make up some law to fit and by the time
that law gets on the books you would
On another occasion Willie showed have done something different.” (136) The
Jack Burden his American history book law, too, must be made up as we go along,
and said, “I durn near memorized every according to Willie, and the law always
durn word in it. I could name you every seems to be a step behind our needs.
name. I could name you every date.” But, But Jack Burden spies a contradiction
Willie concluded, “the fellow that wrote it in Willie’s arguments and in his decisions
didn’t know a God-damned thing. About regarding the hospital. Willie had said
how things were. He didn’t know a thing. that you have to make the good out of the
I bet things were just like they are now. A bad because bad is all you have to make
lot of folks wrassling around.” (67) into good. Willie was busy trying to make
“A lot of folks wrassling around” is a the hospital, which would be a good. Jack
description not only of Willie’s under- wondered, “Now if Willie Stark believed
standing of politics, but of morality also. that you always had to make the good out
“Good with a capital G,” Willie tells Adam of the bad, why did he get so excited when
Stanton, is made up by man as he goes Tiny just wanted to make a logical little
along.7 Willie’s view of the good is evolu- deal with the hospital contract? Why did
tionary in nature. he get so heated up just because Tiny’s
When your great-great-grandpappy climbed
brand of Bad might get mixed in the raw
down out of the tree, he didn’t have any materials from which he was going to
more notion of good or bad, or right or make some Good?” (260) Jack sees the
wrong, than the hoot owl that stayed up in inconsistency and makes a note to ask
the tree. Well, he climbed down and he Willie about it.
began to make Good up as he went along. He Jack never had the opportunity to ask
made up what he needed to do business, Willie about this inconsistency, but per-
Doc. And what he made up and got every- haps the answer can be found in reflec-
body to mirate on as good and right was tion on another question that Jack did
always just a couple of jumps behind what ask Willie—a question about the founda-
he needed to do business on. That’s why
tion of Willie’s power. One of Willie’s cam-
things change, Doc. Because what folks
claim is right is always just a couple of jumps
paign posters features his picture, the
short of what they need to do business. Now legend “My study is the heart of the
an individual, one fellow, he will stop doing people,” and Willie’s signature. This no-
business because he’s got a notion of what tion is not new with Willie Stark. Edmund
is right, and he is a hero. But folks in general, Burke wrote, “The temper of the people

142 Spring 2005

amongst whom he presides ought . . . to be start somewhere.” (387) This decision, a
the first study of a Statesman.”8 In a speech decision to be true to what is best for his
after the failed effort to impeach him, Willie constituency, and not to do what is po-
tells the crowd at the capital, “Your will is litically expeditious, is paralleled by
my strength. Your need is my justice.” Willie’s decision to return to Lucy. (391)
Jack asks Willie if he really meant what Willie’s personal and political plans
he said in this speech. This speech offers are preempted by his assassination. But
a return to Willie’s populist roots. He Willie’s death only prevents him from
began his serious political career by claim- carrying out his intentions, it does not
ing that a hick must depend on himself change his intentions. When Jack visits
and no one else, and offered himself as the Willie in the hospital for the last time,
hick spokesman for the rest of the hicks. Willie says, “It might have been all differ-
Along the way he forgot about his roots, ent, Jack.” Jack nodded, and Willie rein-
and became engaged in political infight- forced what he had just said: “You got to
ing to promote his own power, not to believe that.” Willie’s last words to Jack
fulfill a hick political agenda. are, “And it might even been different
Willie’s early political account of him- yet.… If it hadn’t happened, it might—
self shows the role of the people—“the have been different—even yet.” (400)
common herd”—the hicks—in his think- Jack narrates not only Willie’s story,
ing. Speaking of himself, Willie said: but also his own as it intertwines with
He figured if he wanted to do anything he had
that of Willie. Jack tells us early on that
to do it himself. So he sat up nights and “the end of man is to know,” (9) but as
studied books and studied law so maybe he Willie’s henchman he actively seeks to
could do something about changing things. limit his knowledge. At one point he cuts
He didn’t study that law in any man’s school Sadie Burke off by claiming “ ‘...I don’t
or college. He studied it nights after a hard want to listen. I know too God-damned
day’s work in the field. So he could change much now.’ And I wasn’t joking. I didn’t
things some. For himself and for folks like want to listen. The world was full of things
him. I am not lying to you. He didn’t start out I didn’t want to know” (142). During an
thinking about all the other hicks and how he argument over his job with Willie, Jack
was going to do wonderful things for them.
tells his mother, “I don’t know what those
He started out thinking of number one, but
something came to him on the way. How he
people, as you call them, do. I’m very
could not do something for himself and not careful not to ever know what anybody
for others folks or for himself without the anywhere does any time.” (126)
help of other folks. It was going to be all Based on his studious efforts to avoid
together or none. That came to him. (91) knowing, Jack is able to describe himself
variously as “a piece of furniture” (52), a
But along the way he lost that sense of “hired hand” (113), and an “office boy”
commitment to the “all together.” This is (123). He is able to carry out assigned
the foundation of the political corrup- tasks without remorse or even pangs of
tion that Willie caught himself up in, a conscience because he is able to block
corruption symbolized in a personal way from his field of vision knowledge about
in his infidelity to his wife Lucy. Willie’s the origins or impact of the items that he
effort to recover his original commitment happens to be working on at the time.
to the “heart of the people” is signaled by Jack uses his principle of ignorant
his ultimate unwillingness to let Gummy happiness to give himself what today
Larson have the hospital contract. As he might be called “plausible deniability,”
tells Jack, who does not understand the but this runs counter to his deeper incli-
significance of the decision, “You got to nation, the necessity to know. These two

Modern Age 143

inclinations run headlong into each other ball hero,10 is hired by Bogan Murdock to
in “The Case of the Upright Judge.” (157, work at Myers and Murdock as a bonds
191) This case eventually leads Jack Bur- salesman. Duckfoot Blake works as an
den to an understanding of human re- accountant and statistician at Myers and
sponsibility and to an understanding of Murdock. He has a Ph.D. in economics
the necessity of understanding one’s past. from the University of Chicago. Before
(435-36) As Jack puts it, “if you could coming to Myers and Murdock he had
accept the past you might hope for the worked in a bank and taught sociology at
future, for only out of the past can you State University. (71) Private Porsum had
make the future.” come out of the hills to serve his country
during World War I, and for his single-
handed efforts at subduing a German
At Heaven’s Gate9
machine gun emplacement came back
Warren’s At Heaven’s Gate, an earlier novel, home a war hero. Porsum served in the
places corruption and innocence in the state legislature and then became in-
context of business rather than in the volved in various business deals with
world of politics. Although the Murdock Bogan Murdock.
family has had political prominence, there When Jerry Calhoun comes to work for
is also a “political stain” in that Lemuel Myers and Murdock, Bogan tells him that
Murdock had shot down a political oppo- any special training he needs will come
nent. Perhaps this stain confines his son from the only teacher he will need, expe-
Bogan’s pursuit of power to the financial rience (56). But Murdock did assign
world—the mirror image of politics— Morton to break Jerry in and suggested
from when he engages with numerous that Jerry talk to Duckfoot Blake: “He can
characters and through them wields in- give you a lot of pointers. He probably
fluence (including political influence knows more about the business than any-
through the state’s incumbent governor). body. He’s a highly valuable man.” (72)
Bogan Murdock is a successful entre- Duckfoot proves to be Jerry’s primary
preneur when the novel opens, and dur- teacher in learning about life at Myers
ing the novel we catch glimpses of the and Murdock. Some of Duckfoot’s advice
unraveling of his financial empire. At is geared to a very practical level. Since
Heaven’s Gate is told, for the most part, by bond salesmen have to keep up appear-
an omniscient narrator, a narrator who ances and make the right connections in
often allows us to see what characters are order to sell, Jerry should move out of the
thinking. But we never see inside of Bogan boarding house where he is rooming into
Murdock—we read his letters, we hear his a nicer place (69), move from the Baptist
conversations, we learn what others say Church he grew up in to the Episcopal
and think about him, but the ultimate Church (72-73), and dump his poor friends
reality of his own thoughts is always hid- for rich ones (73). In an interesting way,
den. Unlike Willie Stark, whom we come Duckfoot’s most important advice to Jerry
to know primarily from the perspective of paralleled what Bogan Murdock had al-
Jack Burden, we have a chance to see ready said. Duckfoot tells Jerry to forget
Bogan Murdock from a greater number of what he learned at college. “You don’t
more limited perspectives. The portrait want to let anything tarnish that profound
that we are able to draw of Murdock is, and fruitful ignorance which is the sine qua
then, a cubist work, reflected from mul- non of your chosen profession.” (72)
tiple perspectives. When the Southern Fidelity Bank is
Jerry Calhoun, a college-trained geolo- founded, Murdock selects Jerry to be Vice
gist, but more importantly, a college foot- President of Securities. (130) Private

144 Spring 2005

Porsum, hero of World War I and Medal of for help he should have prayed for one
Honor winner, will be the bank’s presi- more thing. “I ought to have prayed to
dent, and Duckfoot Blake will also be an him to let that last bullet coming out of
officer in the new venture. When various the gun hid over in that patch of woods
illegal financial dealings threaten the hit me clean between the eyes.” (340)
collapse of the bank, along with the rest Perhaps the most intimate portrait we
of the Bogan Murdock financial empire, get of Bogan Murdock comes from his
Duckfoot resigns. (267) daughter, Sue. From Sue’s standpoint,
Duckfoot tells Jerry that he will lose all Bogan Murdock is a tyrant trying to run
of the money he had invested in the Happy her life. We first encounter Bogan when
Valley development project because the Sue comes into the study, where Bogan is
bonds behind the project had been reading a magazine. We hear the conver-
switched for worthless paper, and even- sation, and read Sue’s thoughts: “He is so
tually all of the cash collateral would be polite; he is the politest man in the world.”
called in. Jerry decides to confront Bogan This, in Sue’s mind, is not necessarily a
Murdock directly on this issue. Bogan compliment: “Politeness, it’s just a way of
admits that problems existed, but claims making people do things.” (6) Sue’s rela-
that the problems stemmed from another tionship to her father is captured in a
bank, not Southern Fidelity. (267-68) conversation she has with Jerry:
Bogan tells Jerry that “A complete review
of collateral is being conducted by Mr. “I won’t be bullied. I don’t care if he is my
father. That’s it—”
Shotwell. I suggest, my boy, that if you are
“Now, look here—”
uncomfortable you confer with Mr.
“—because he made me, he thinks he owns
Shotwell. All I ask...is that you make a me. He makes something, then he sits
sober investigation before you come to back and looks at it.” (104)
any decision. You must act according to
your best judgment. You must not be Later in the story, Sue accuses Sweetie
swayed by your personal attachments.” Sweetwater of being like her father: “you’re
(268-69) Later Bogan tells Jerry that he just like him, you want to run everybody,
had mentioned Jerry’s concerns to you want to run everybody for their own
Shotwell and asks Jerry if he had con- good, and you don’t give a damn for any-
tacted Shotwell. Jerry has not. He had body, not anybody in the world, just your-
decided not to talk to Shotwell, not to self, just yourself.” (320)
pursue to the truth Duckfoot’s allega- But Sue’s vision of her father is not
tions. Much as Jack Burden resists know- necessarily in line with what we observe
ing too much, so does Jerry Calhoun, even from other sources. When Sue leaves
when the knowledge in question involves home, Bogan Murdock provides funds for
the legitimacy of his business and his her, without strings, to ensure that she
personal well-being. can survive. In one of his conversations
Private Porsum also decides to resign with Jerry Calhoun, to whom Sue is for a
from Southern Fidelity. When Porsum vis- time engaged, Bogan hoped that Jerry
its Murdock to tell him of his resignation, would
he admits that “Things went on that had “…be able to do what I have failed to do. It
no business. I tried not to know about is a sad thing for a father to say, Jerry, but
them.” (344) In reflecting on the events it is true: I have somehow failed to be a good
which led to his becoming a war hero in father to Sue. How, I don’t know. I wish to
the light of the financial collapse which God I knew. I am not a devout man—no, not
has tarnished his reputation, Private even religious in the ordinary sense of the
Porsum says that when he prayed to God word—but my failure with Sue has brought

Modern Age 145

 me more than once to my knees. It has taught particularly unclear. The line is unclear
me—” and he swung his head, deliberately, because what is in truth corrupt often
to face Jerry, as though he had steeled appears as perfectly legitimate, and it is
himself for a confession, “humility.” (105) unclear because corruption is often de-
pendent on the willing cooperation of
I suggested that the portrait of Bogan innocence in the carrying out of its
Murdock is cubist in nature, with odd schemes. Much of the innocence found in
angles put together in ways that do not fit these novels could be called “plausible
neatly. The portrait of Bogan as father, deniability”—characters have the oppor-
with the apparent conflict between Sue’s tunity to learn what is going on but they
perception of him and the great care and willingly choose to remain ignorant. Jack
concern for Sue which he shares with Burden’s characterization of himself as
Jerry, is an example of the way in which At just a piece of the furniture allowed him
Heaven’s Gate presents us with contra- to distance himself from the conse-
dictory evidence. Another example of this quences of the orders from Willie which
technique is the interplay between he followed. In At Heaven’s Gate both
Duckfoot’s increasingly critical review of Jerry Calhoun and Private Porsum allow
Myers and Murdock financial practice and themselves to become a part of Bogan
Bogan’s apparent openness in discussing Murdock’s financial empire without ex-
the problems with Jerry, and in encourag- ploring the implications of their actions.
ing Jerry to investigate on his own. Warren suggests that the “same the-
At Heaven’s Gate concludes with Sue matic considerations” were at the origin
Murdock murdered, Jerry Calhoun out of of both novels. Just as Bogan Murdock
jail on bail for his part in the mismanage- “was supposed to embody, in one of his
ment of Southern Fidelity Bank, Private dimensions, the desiccating abstraction
Porsum in the hospital for injuries sus- of power...and to try to fulfill vicariously
tained while trying to quell a riot at the his natural emptiness by exercising power
jail, and Bogan Murdock holding a press over those around him, so the politician
conference in which he assumes respon- rises to power because of the faculty of
sibility for the failure of Southern Fidel- fulfilling vicariously the secret needs of
ity. Bogan Murdock assumes complete others, and in the process...discovers his
responsibility “because I followed too own emptiness.”11
faithfully my larger vision and trusted too Whatever the validity of this schematic
much in friends, in subordinates in whom for identifying the underlying themes of
I thought I had found loyalty.” (391) He these novels, in itself it is not complete.
concludes with reflections on true loy- One of the questions that it fails to ad-
alty and courage. All of this is done under dress is the possibility of recovery. In the
an imposing portrait of Andrew Jackson case of Willie Stark, the final conversa-
designed to add an element of dignity and tion between Willie and Jack quoted
historical luster to the event. There can above points to the possibility of recov-
be little doubt that Bogan Murdock will ery. Jack’s final evaluation of Willie as a
weather the storm and resurrect his finan- “great man” (AKM, 426-27) also reflects on
cial career. this possibility. The epigram of All the
King’s Men, taken from Dante’s Divine Com-
edy, also points to the importance of the
The Interplay Of Innocence And Corruption
possibility of spiritual recovery: “While
Both At Heaven’s Gate and All the King’s one green hope puts forth the feeblest
Men present worlds in which in the line sliver.”12 The key to this hope appears to
between corruption and innocence is be Willie’s ultimate recognition of his

146 Spring 2005

own emptiness, and a turning toward part, because all of his actions appear to
something that can fulfill his existence. be calculated by immediate circumstance
This optimistic perspective, which and advantage. The novel ends on an
holds open the possibility of spiritual especially bleak note with Murdock “ac-
recovery in All the King’s Men, is almost cepting responsibility” for the financial
totally lacking in At Heaven’s Gate. It is problems of his businesses in a way that
left unclear whether any of the major provides the illusion of his own inno-
characters in the novel have come to any cence by actually sloughing off responsi-
sense of self-understanding. The most bility onto his “trusted subordinates,”
likely candidates for this are perhaps and using the murder of his daughter, Sue,
Duckfoot Blake and Private Porsum. Blake as part of a media strategy to regain pub-
seemed to have the best grasp of what lic favor. In contrast to Private Porsum, a
was going on around him, and to have the simple man who lives by a code of honor,
best sense of judgment concerning the Murdock attempts to use honor as an-
character of those he dealt with, includ- other tool in his repertoire of business
ing himself. Private Porsum, when finally practices. The moral landscape of At
aroused from his self-benefiting igno- Heaven’s Gate is considerably more bleak
rance, does act decisively in an effort to than that of All the King’s Men, because
rectify his past errors. As a man of honor, ultimately Bogan Murdock’s moral sense
he finally acts honorably. is underdeveloped when compared with
I have suggested above that Bogan that of Willie Stark. Perhaps in this regard,
Murdock will weather the storm and re- Bogan Murdock, rather than Willie Stark,
cover financially. It is more difficult to is emblematic of the moral drift of con-
see any spiritual recovery on Murdock’s temporary politics.

1. Robert Penn Warren, Flood: A Romance of Our edition of At Heaven’s Gate (1985). 10. Jerry is not
Time (New York, 1963), 157-158. 2. “Introduction the first athlete that Murdock has hired (AHG, 56-
to the Modern Library Edition of All the King’s 57, 72). 11. “Introduction to the Modern Library
Men,” in A Robert Penn Warren Reader (New York, Edition of All the King’s Men,” in A Robert Penn
1988), 225-26. 3. All parenthetical references in Warren Reader, 226. The complexity of what
this section are to the Harvest Book paperback Warren is doing is signaled by the analysis Slim
edition of All the King’s Men (1982). 4. Willie is Sarrett makes of Bogan Murdock, an analysis that
perhaps stereotypical in many respects, but he parallels Warren’s own later analysis quoted in
is not a race-baiter. In fact, in his early career he the text. Sarrett tells Murdock: “You...represent
is accused of being a “nigger-lover.” (AKM, 57) to me the special disease of our time, the abstract
Jeffers Construction Company, which submitted passion for power, a vanity springing from an
the low bid for the school project, used Negro awareness of the emptiness and unreality of the
bricklayers, plasterers, and carpenters. As skilled self which can only attempt to become real and
laborers, these workmen would make more than human by the oppression of people who manage
local unskilled white workers. (60) 5. AKM, 55-56. to retain some shreds of reality and humanity.”
6. The idea for the hospital comes to Willie much (AHG, 250) After this encounter, Slim first be-
earlier than the idea to dedicate it to his son. comes Sue’s lover, and later in the novel, her
(AKM, 381) 7. AKM, 257. 8. Edmund Burke, murderer. 12. Dante, The Divine Comedy 2: Purga-
“Thoughts on the Present Discontents,” in Select tory, Canto III, line 135, trans. Dorothy Sayers (New
Works of Edmund Burke (Indianapolis, 1999), Vol- York, 1955). See Talking with Robert Penn Warren
ume 2, p. 71. 9. All parenthetical references in this (Athens, Ga., 1990), 186-87.
section are to the New Directions paperback

Modern Age 147