When reading All the King's Men, many questions appeared in my mind as to why a series of events occurred. Being the complex novel that it is, All the King's Men is not the easiest read and contains many plot elements and character twists that cause the reader to be confused at times. From the fact that Judge Irwin was really Jack's father, to the fact that Willie Stark was having an affair with Anne Stanton, Robert Penn Warren, the author of the novel, seemed to add many inexplicable twists in the novel. One of these twists of which I was most curious about was the fact that Adam Stanton ended up killing Willie Stark.
Throughout the novel, Adam Stanton seemed to have some sort of perversion towards the corrupt. Warren made it clear that he hated politics for this reason. Whenever Jack Burden mentioned that he was into politics or brought up politics in a discussion, Adam seemed to undergo a character shift as he immediately became cynical towards the subject sometimes even angering Jack. This was of course highlighted by the fact that he outright refused to take control of the hospital at first merely because he hated politics and he hated Willie Starks for his corruption.
When Anne came to Jack to attempt to force him into convincing Adam to direct the hospital effort, Jack stated that he had to alter Adam's reality and view on life. He was filled with the noble figures of his father Governor Stanton and Judge Irwin. Warren almost seemed to portray Adam as a naive individual because of his views on the world. In finding that Judge Irwin had taken a bribe to reach his position and that Governor Stanton had covered up the bribe to protect his friend, Jack seemed to change the novel as he successfully altered Adam's reality and showed that corruption is everywhere. Then Adam's immediate acceptance of Stark's proposal to run the hospital after getting knowledge that his father and the Judge were corrupt was also surprising. He seemed to accept the fact that corruption was prevalent in society, especially after hearing about his father, yet he continued to go on and kill Willie Stark in a cruel twist of irony. Stark seemed to be coming clean from his corrupt ways only to be shot by a person who hated corruption. After his acceptance of the job, Stark came over to Stanton's apartment and gave his "all good must come from some bad" spiel and once again Stanton's animosity towards politics and corruption was highlighted.
As the novel went on, I continued to wonder why Adam hated corruption so much as he then slugged Gummy Larson in the face when he came to visit him regarding giving him the hospital construction contract. When Adam finally found out that Anne had had an affair with Willie and then killed Willie by shooting him in the heart, I gained a little perspective one Adam's psyche and Warren's purpose for him. Throughout the novel, Adam seemed to be the character foil of Willie Stark, who seemed to personify corruption. When he learned that Anne was having an affair with Willie, essentially corrupting herself, it was Adam's last straw as he cracked. It was almost symbolic as both Adam and Willie died by gunshots to the heart area as Adam had felt deeply betrayed in the heart when he died and Willie was emotionally spent. Adam remained against the prevalence of corruption, a concept that was a major theme in the novel, till the end.
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