All The King’s Men
Summer Reading Assignment
10 points!
This assignment will require you to complete several activities:
1. Read the novel (Not just the Sparknotes), All the King’s Men by Robert
Penn Warren.
2. As you read chapters 1 – 4: complete the reading notes.
3. As you finish the novel, chapters 5 – 10, complete one of the following
assignment options:
*CHAPTER NOTES
create notes for the main events/ideas of the chapter. These
notes can be in any style that you want but they should cover things
such as: main events, main characters, important quotes/ideas, key
symbols.
OR
*CHARACTER ANALYSIS
compose a ½ -3/4 page analysis of two important characters or
events per chapter; this is an analysis (discussing the
traits/actions/thoughts of the characters or specific reflections and
thoughts about an event in the chapter - think about importance,
connections, reflections). This is NOT A SUMMARY. You should
complete one per chapter.
***You can mix and match notes and analysis with each chapter.
4. Be prepared for a test on the novel when we get back to school.
5. We will also write an Essay on the novel when we get back to school.
SUMMARY:
*Read the Novel
*Complete the Reading Guide for chapters 1-4.
*Complete Notes or ½ page analysis writings for chapters 5-10 (one per
chapter).
Mr. Okada
Name:________________________________
Date:_________________________
AP Lit
Period:________
All the King’s Men – Reading Notes
Chapters 1 -4
Chapter 1: (Pages 1 – 50 – brown) (1-75 – white)
Setting: 1936
Describe the situation: (pages 3 – 12 brown: 4 – 19 white):
Flashback 1922 – Describe the first time Jack and Willie met:
Willie and the entourage visit Old Man Starks’ place (Willie’s father) – list
TWO important statements:
Jack’s definition of an idealist: (pg. 30 –
brown; 45 - white)
Setting: Describe Burden’s Landing (pages 36 – 48 - brown; 54 – 73 - white)
Page 49 brown; 75- white – Final paragraph of the chapter
“And Masters is dead now, as dead as a mackerel, but the Boss was right and he
went to the Senate. And Callahan is not dead but he has wished he were, no doubt,
for he used up his luck a long time back and being dead was not part of it. And
Adam Stanton is dead now, too, who used to go fishing with me and who lay on the
sand in the hot sunshine with me and with Anne Stanton. And Judge Irwin is dead,
who leaned toward me among the stems of the tall gray marsh grass, in the gray
damp wintry dawn, and said, “You ought to have led that duck more, Jack. You got
to lead a duck, son.” And the Boss is dead, who said to me, “And make it stick.”
Little Jackie made it stick, all right.”
This jumps back to present time and foreshadows the conclusion of the novel.
What stands out? What questions do you have?
Character info: List important traits, information, and background for these
characters up to this point:
Character
Willie Stark (Boss)
Jack Burden (narrator)
Sugar Boy (driver)
Tiny Duffy
Sadie Burke
Judge Irwin
Lucy Stark
Description/ traits
Background,
information, actions
Mr. Okada
Name:________________________________
Date:_________________________
AP Lit
Period:________
All the King’s Men – Reading Notes
Chapters 2
Chapter 2: (Pages 51 – 109 - brown) (76-163- white)
Setting: 1939 – flashback to 1922
Jack’s job:
Willie’s Job:
Lucy’s job:
The scandal regarding the building contract for the new school: (55 – 65 – brown;
75-96 white)
Quotes / Notes
Details
Jack:
“I took out my pencil and a pad of paper,
and wrote on it. Then I said to Mr.
Pillsbury, Chairman of the Board of County
Commissioners of Mason County, stated
that the bid of J.H.Moore for the
construction of the Mason County School
was accepted, even though it was not the
low bid, because the Board wanted
somebody ‘who could do the work right’
The low bid, which was submitted by the
Jeffers Construction Company, was
rejected, Mr. Pillsbury stated.”
What is the real reason they go with J.H.
Moore?
What is the background concerning the
quality of the J.H. Moore company?
What happened at the school (pg. 64 –
brown; 96 - white)
How did this tragedy benefit Willie?
Quote regarding Willie Starks (63 – brown; 94 - white):
“ Or is it possible that fellows like Willie Stark are born outside of luck, good or bad, and
luck, which is what about makes you and me what were are, doesn’t have anything to do
with them, for they are what they are from the time they first kick in the womb until the
end. And if that is the case, then their life history is a process of discovering what they
really are, and not, as for you and me, sons of luck, a process of becoming what luck
makes us. And if that is the case, then Lucy wasn’t Willie’s luck. Or his unluck either. She
was part of the climate in which the process of discovering the real Willie was taking
place.”
Harrison v. MacMurfee:
Harrison had the __________ votes and MacMurfee had the ___________ votes.
Willie is used to:
Willie struggled as an emotional speaker. Jack suggested (72 – brown; 108 - white):
“Hell, make ‘em cry, make ‘em laugh, make ‘em think you’re their weak erring pal, or
make ‘em think you’re God-Almighty. Or make’em mad. Even mad at you. Just stir ‘em
up, it doesn’t matter how or why, and they’ll love you and come back for more. Pinch ‘em
in the soft place.”
Physical Description
Thoughts – who does she
remind you of?
Sadie Burke: (73 – brown;
110 - white)
Pg. 93 – brown; 140 – white: What does Willie decide to do regarding his situation
in the Harrison vs. MacMurfee campaign?
Willie eventually becomes Governor. He hires Tiny Duffy as his Lieutenant
Governor. Jack says:
“ In the end, I decided that there was one more reason behind the other reasons. This:
Tiny Duffy became, in a crazy kind of way, the other self of Willie Stark, and all the
contempt and insult which Willie Stark was to heap on Tiny Duffy was nothing but what
one self of Willie Stark did to the other self because of a blind, inward necessity. But I
came to that conclusion only at the very end, a long time afterwards.” (98 – brown; 147 white)
The Great Sleep – First mentioning (100 – brown; 150-151 - white) – What does he say
about it?
What do we learn about Jack, Adam, and Anne (103 – 107- brown; 154-163 white):
Jack is hired by Willie Starks to:
Mr. Okada
Name:________________________________
Date:_________________________
AP Lit
Period:________
All the King’s Men – Reading Notes
Chapters 3-4
Chapter 3: (Pages 110 – 156 - brown) (164-234 – white)
Setting: 1933
Jack’s Mother and her husbands (110 – 115 – brown; 164-172 - white)
Man
1. Scholarly Attorney
Description
Details
2. Tycoon
3. Count
4. Young Executive
What do we learn about Jack, Anne, and Adam (116 – 119 – brown; 173 -178 white)?
Nice quote (128 – brown; 192 - white)
“They say you are not you except in terms of relation to other people. If there weren’t
any other people there wouldn’t be any you because what you do, which is what you are,
only has meaning in relation to other people.”
Byram B. White Scandal: (131 – 140 – brown; 196 – 209 - white)
What he did
How Willie Handled it
Why Willie handled it this
way
Who is Hugh Miller and what does he do in response to the Byram B. White
Scandal?
Willie and his affairs: (140 – 144 – brown; 209-217 – white)
Who are some of Willie’s current and past mistresses?
Jack tells Sadie: “he was two – timing Lucy, so you need some other kind of arithmetic for
what he was doing to you. But I don’t know whether you multiply or divide in a case like
this.” (142 – brown; 213- white)
IMPEACHMENT?
Why do they try to impeach Willie? How does he get out of it?
Lucy and Willie (pg. 155 – 156 – brown; 233-234 - white) Picture Perfect Marriage:
Chapter 4: (Pages 157 – 190 - brown) (235 – 285 – white)
Setting: 1936
Jack remembers working on his Ph.D. in American History:
The Case of Cass Mastern:
Who are the players in the love triangle?
Details of the affair:
End result for the main characters:
Who is Phebe? What happened to Phebe? Why?
What does Cass do in response to this?
Quote
YOUR Response
1. Jack Burden lived with the Mastern
papers for a year and half…But the day
came when Jack Burden sat down at the
pine table and realized that he did not
know Cass Mastern. He did not have to
know Cass Mastern to get the degree; he
only had to know the facts about Cass
Mastern’s world. But without knowing
Cass Mastern, he could not put down the
facts about Cass Mastern’s world.”
2. Cass Mastern lived for a few years and in
that time he learned that the world is all of
one piece. He learned that the world is like
an enormous spider web and if you touch it,
however lightly, at any point, the vibration
ripples to the remotest perimeter and the
drowsy spider feels the tingle and is
drowsy no more but springs out to fling the
gossamer coils about you who have
touched the web and then inject the black,
numbing poison under your hides.”
3. “Jack Burden could read those words,
but how could he be expected to
understand them? They could only be
words to him, for to him the world then
was simply an accumulation of items, odds
and ends of things gathered in a garret. Or
it was the flux of things before his eyes (or
behind his eyes) and one thing had nothing
to do, in the end, with anything else.”
What is “The GREAT SLEEP”? DESCRIBE this time period in Jack’s life: (189 –
brown; 284 - white)