All the King's Men | Literary Precedents

All the King's Men Literary Precedents

All the King's Men draws on a rich tradition of literature, ranging from Jacobean drama to the novels of William Faulkner. Parallels with Faulkner, an older contemporary of Warren and a fellow southerner, are especially striking. Both writers use Southern settings to explore universal themes, particularly those of moral and spiritual corruption, the effects of time, the search for meaning in the universe, and the need to create meaning if none exists. Both writers point out the dangers of people adhering too rigidly to any set of rules or pattern that they may have created in the quest for meaning. Warren's Adam Stanton and Faulkner's Quentin Compson of The Sound and the Fury (1929) are inflexible idealists, each of whom dies because he cannot bear the discovery that his sister falls short of his ideals. Warren states that "Life is Motion toward Knowledge," and neither Adam nor Quentin can tolerate...
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