Rhetorical Devices In All The King's Men

Submitted By PattersonU
Words: 724
Pages: 3

Huma Aziz
Ms. Hazelton
AP Language and Composition
18 May 2015
Rhetorical Devices Robert Penn Warren, the author of All the King’s Men describes his story of a confused middle-aged man, a pure doctor, and a corrupted government with many rhetorical devices. There were a very many of them, rhetorical devices, but the ones that Warren used that affected me the most were bildungsroman, irony, imagery, metaphors, anecdotes and flashback. The story told from Jack Burden’s view, the middle-aged man would have not been very significant if it weren’t for the specific devices Warren had used. Flashbacks were a reoccurring device in the novel. “This has been the story of Willie Stark, but it is my story, too” (Warren 595). Jack Burden, the main character, constantly goes back to previous events because it is his job to Willie Stark to dig up information on politicians, and because Burden is a historian. Jack Burden is telling this story in bits.” Metaphysically it was the Boss, but how was I to know? Fate comes walking through the door, and it is five feet eleven inches tall and heavyish in the chest and shortish in the leg and is wearing a seven-fifty seer seeker suit…”(20). Since half the story was omitted, whenever it is called for, Warren gives the background information to an event or a person through a flashback or an anecdote. Most of the times, the flashback is an anecdote about someone who is very close to Jack Burden, and the stories give the reader a deeper meaning of what Burden feels towards a person. The whole story is in Burden’s point of view, and all the emotions described are his. The flashbacks Warren writes gives the reader a more in depth understanding of what Burden feels towards someone/something. The book would also be too long if Warren wrote about Burden’s entire life, so whenever it is needed, Warren gives the background information. Robert Penn Warren also uses a great amount of imagery.” ...with the black line down the center coming at and at you, black and slick and tarry-shining against the white of the slab, and the heat dazzles up from the white slab so that only the black line is clear, coming at you with the whine of the tires, and if you don’t quit staring at that line and don’t take a few deep breathes and slap yourself hard on the back of your neck you’ll hypnotize yourself…”(1). Warren uses imagery to get the reader very familiar with the landscape, feelings of the people, and how things look and feel. Warren wants the reader to get as much as they can out of reading the book; he makes sure that the reader understands everything that could affect the story in any remote way. Every little detail is gone over and given to the reader