All The King's Men Analysis

When politics gets involved in family affairs, relationships often become tense and go awry. This is especially true for Willie and Lucy Stark, the once happily married parents of Tom Stark in the Southern United States during the 1930’s until Willie’s obsession with politics leads him to develop flawed character traits such as arrogance and infidelity. While disputing the issue of their son’s participation in football in the novel All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, Willie and Lucy Stark each use strategies described in Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs in an effort to get their ways until the issue is resolved. As the spotlight shines on Tom for his outstanding performance in college football, he becomes arrogant similar to the way his father did from his political success. Willie is

One night, Tom lands himself in the hospital after a DUI accident causing Lucy to argue with Willie about ending his bad habits once and for all. Some of the strategies the couple used in this particular argument were advantageous while others could use improvement. For example, Lucy does a good job using the future tense in her argument when she states to Willie “‘you will ruin him,’” if he keeps up his influence on Tom (Warren 345). As Jay Heinrichs describes in Thank You for Arguing, “the most productive arguments use the future tense,” the way Lucy foreshadows what will become of Tom if his actions continue. She also displays a good sense of volume control as she keeps her voice “quiet and even” throughout the argument while Willie lets out his anger too early by exclaiming derogatory statements like “Don’t be a fool!” (Warren 345). As Heinrichs advises, the best way to “portray an emotion