The Collapse of Morality and Power Abuse in Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men (1946)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25130/Lang.9.2.20Keywords:
Power abuse, Moral collapse, Class conflict, Hegemony, Marxist criticismAbstract
This paper attempts to offers a comprehensive overview of the socio-political argument about interconnection of power abuse, moral collapse, and class conflict as represented in Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men (1946). This study at examining Warren's novel with the corrupting influence of power abuse through the moral variation presented by the central character, Willie Stark. Framed through theoretical lenses of Marxist literary criticism and Gramsci’s theory of Hegemony, this study examines the populist politician whose moral collapse reflects the broader deterioration of personal and societal values. The novel tries to describe the intersection of personal ambition and political hegemony, signifying the manipulation of power and populist ideology. This study critically examines the complications around political life and its ethical consequences to situate All the King's Men within the context of broader literary composition, highlighting the exploration of power dynamics and social structures. The study concludes that Warren’s novel remains significant to contemporary debates by disclosing how specific factors as corruption within power structures, the manipulation of public narratives and prioritizing political expediency over moral principles lead to both personal and societal collapse. These forces undermine genuine human values and replace them with empty political promises, highlighting the important contrast between rigid ideological thinking and pragmatic approaches to governance.
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