Throughout my time reading All the King’s Men, one thing that has surprised me is how similar the relationships were back then compared to today. While this may sounds dumb and like a really small thing, I can’t help but think back to my last blog on this book and think how similar lives were now compared to back then, and I honestly had no idea. Willie Stark, the main character, has a wife named Lucy Stark, but has at least one mistress. I say “at least one” because I wouldn’t be surprised if he had more. While this isn’t super relative to the plot line, I couldn’t help but compare it to politics after the 1930s when this took place, and even today. The first thing that came to mind when I heard about the mistress, the first thing I thought of was president JFK while he was in office. While Willie isn’t president of the United States, it still brought my mind to the whole scandal where he was allegedly cheating on Jackie with Marilyn Monroe. That was such a big deal at the time to the country, because this president they all had grown to love and know was supposedly cheating on his wife and mother of his kids with the biggest celebrity of the time. After I made this connection, I realized that politics at any level, in pretty much every time frame, goes way beyond the issues present at that time. It’s scary to now think about what we don’t know about so many politicians, but they’ll do whatever it takes to cover that up so they can win.
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Great American Novels 