Summary:
Jimmy Buffett and Penn Warren's Jack Burden share this avoidance, but as they progress, they both learn to accept the truth of personal liability. Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville revolves around the theme of accepting responsibility, paralleling Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men.
Many people in our modern world find themselves looking for others to lay blame on; constantly attempting to avoid responsibility. In the path through life, on the road to understanding, this avoidance can never hope to remain intact. Jimmy Buffett and Penn Warren's Jack Burden share this avoidance, but as they progress, they both learn to accept the truth of personal liability. Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville revolves around the theme of accepting responsibility, paralleling Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men.
In the beginning, both Jack Burden and Jimmy Buffett deny any possibility of personal responsibility, grasping on to an ignorance of such a concept. In Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett drinks heavily to escape his present reality, feeling at least a tiny iota of regret for his careless drunkenness, he attempts to ignore responsibility claiming he "know[s] it's nobody's fault" (Buffett, 10). Buffett's ignorance allows him to perpetuate the careless happiness he feels in being drunk and free of liability. In the first chapter of All The King's Men, Jack Burden does just the same, he ignores his present reality, in order to perpetuate a carefree bliss, basking in the beauty of the sunset he hears the gate behind him open, but does not look for "If [he] didn't look around it would not be true that somebody had opened the gate ... that is a wonderful principle for a man to get a hold of." (Penn Warren, 30). Just as Buffett does, Burden ignores his reality, escaping to a world in which feeling bad is not necessary, bad things don't happen, so therefore, no one is responsible for them. As Margaritaville progress, Buffett continues to grasp to his denial, remaining ignorant to ."..the reason [he] stayed [there] all season ... But it's a real beauty" (Buffett, 11,12,14). In his drunkenness, Buffett is able to perpetuate an ignorance of his world, living in his "real beauty" of an escapist reality. Buffett sees that knowledge would be the end of his fake world. Jack Burden also sees this truth as he runs from reality, claiming, in a broad generalization, that "The end of man is knowledge..." (Penn Warren, 9). As is a reoccurring motif throughout the novel, Burden generalizes his escapist views to the whole of man kind, pushing responsibility for the ideas away from himself. In actuality, knowledge is simply the end of Jack's artificial bliss, the end of his world of ignorance.
The ignorance and denial of ones present reality cannot forever be sustained, both Jack and Jimmy are lead to question their ignorance. As Margaritaville moves on, Buffett becomes more aware of his blight, pondering that ."..it could be [his] fault" (Buffett, 21). Buffett is now becoming more aware of his surroundings, realizing that his drunken escapism cannot perpetuate forever. Jimmy is being proposed with the question, are the problems in his life due to his own lack of responsibility, or is it simply no ones fault? Jack Burden is also proposed with this question when Anne Stanton (his youth love) begins a relationship with Willie Stark. However, Jack pushes away this questioning, reverting back to an ignorant state, he claims ."..Anne Stanton [was]...a peculiarly complicated piece of mechanism ... Jack Burden...himself...another...mechanism" (Penn Warren 311). In this denial of the free will of man, Jack alleviates the painful questions that have entered his mind. Jack is able to pass everything off as irrelevant to the workings of emotionless machines built for specific purposes. Both Jack and Jimmy are coming closer to accepting personal responsibility for their actions. The song and the novel progress, and both Jimmy Buffett and Jack Burden return home from tropical getaways that helped them both sustain their illusions. However, they will continue to hold on to these until their final realization. Jimmy Buffett is forced to ."..cruise on back home..." but, ."..there's booze in the blender ... And soon it will render...that frozen concoction that helps [him] hang on" (Buffett, 24-27). Even though Buffett is forced to return from his beautiful getaway in the tropics, he continues to perpetuate his illusion of freedom from liability, returning to drinking to perpetuate his ignorant reality. Jack Burden does the same by returning with his idea of the .".Great Twitch..." (Penn Warren, 314). This idea that all actions are like a congregation of twitches supports Jack's irresponsibility by perpetuating an idea that humans lack free will. Without free will, no true responsibility can exist, for the actions of man are not of his own choice.
Eventually, Jack and Jimmy accept personal responsibility, though for Jack it takes a great awakening and a few deaths. In the end of Margaritaville, Buffett admits his responsibilities for his drunkenness and escapism, stating that he knows that .".it's [his] own ... fault" (Buffett, 31-33). Buffett simply begins to accept that his drunkenness is simply the result of his irresponsible means of dealing with his problems (women trouble). Jimmy is able to realize that continued drunken escapism will lead him nowhere in the way of getting over his emotions. Throughout the song, Buffett had reiterated that "Some people claim that there's a woman to blame..." (Buffett, 9,19,30,32). Buffet did not accept this alternate means of avoiding responsibility, by blaming the woman, Buffett would simply be pushing responsibility on those around him. However, in doing such, would admit that responsibility exists, this in turn would break down his own argument that no one was responsible for any problems he might have at the time, Buffett eventually leads to reject both means of escaping responsibility, and accepts it. Jack Burden, too, comes to the endpoint of accepting personal responsibility for his actions. His first step towards realizing responsibility comes when he realizes his part in the suicide of his father, Judge Irwin, he ponders ."..But Mortimer had killed Judge Irwin in the end....Or...Perhaps I had done it" (Penn Warren, 353). Right then Jack begins to accept some responsibility for the things that occurred around him, it was him that found the information for Willie Stark to use to blackmail Judge Irwin, and it was the blackmail attempt that lead to Irwin's suicide. Jack began to accept his role in the death. As the novel progresses, Jack finally accepts responsibility, but he must overcome his rejection of the reality of the past. When visiting his mother, Jack learns that mother truly loved Judge Irwin, saying "It was always Monty..." (Penn Warren 429). Learning his mother was capable of love allowed him to accept the past, he previously always rejected it for fear that he was not loved, but now, knowing his mother was capable of love, he is able to begin to accept the past, and reject the "dream" that keeps him from accepting personal responsibility. Jack finally comes to his end realization.
Jack Burden and Jimmy Buffett both go through a journey that takes them from the pits of irresponsible ignorance to a mature, adult acceptance of personal responsibility. The novel, All The King's Men and the song, Margaritaville, both share the theme of personal responsibility, both mapping the journeys of men to accepting the truth of their own liability.
Works Cited
Penn Warren, Robert, All the King's Men, United States: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996 (original 1946)
Buffett, Jimmy, Margaritaville, United States (Song)
Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville Lyrics
Nibblin' on sponge cake
Watchin' the sun bake
All of those tourists covered with oil
Strummin' my six-string
On my front porch swing
Smell those shrimp they're beginnin' to boil
Wastin' away again in Margaritaville
Searching for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame
But I know it's nobody's fault
I don't know the reason
I stayed here all season
Nothin' to show but this brand new tattoo
But it's a real beauty
A Mexican cutie
How it got here I haven't a clue
Wastin' away again in Margaritaville
Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame
Now I think
Hell, it could be my fault
I blew out my flip-flop
Stepped on a pop-top
Cut my heel had to cruise on back home
But there's booze in the blender
And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on
Wastin' away again in Margaritaville
Searching for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame
But I know it's my own damn fault
Yes and some people claim that there's a woman to blame
And I know it's my own damn fault
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