How important is the setting in a novel that talks about corruption, politics and passion? In Robert Penn Warren's novel, All the King's Men, location is everything. Although the novel's direct setting is unknown, the historical parallel reveals Louisiana as the backdrop for this story. Jack Burden, narrator of Warren's novel, takes the reader on a non-linear journey. Jack's success in studying history and newspapers has an advantage in presenting the story so vividly (Bloom 42). However, the story would be bland without the various settings directly related to the thoughts and actions of the characters. Harold Bloom, professor of Humanities at Yale University, writes: “It all happens in an American world that is shown in wonderfully precise detail, a world of country farms and county courthouses and small-town hotels, of pool halls and slum apartments and the 'ridiculous fox-stinking liars' of the cheap boarding houses and places at Burden's Landing and the Governor's mansion and the state capitol and the country fairs and the city football stadiums and the highways infinite. This extensive list of novel settings is meaningless without the characters who live and travel within them. In Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the use of setting is important in revealing the personal opinions and struggles of the characters, particularly Jack Burden and Willie Stark. Burden's Landing, Jack's family's namesake town, is where he grew up and visits often. Named in memory of his grandfather's success and popularity among the community, Jack calls Landing his home during both the school year and summer as a child, but he enjoyed the summer at Burden's Landing the most. Her friends Adam and Anne Stanton worked...... middle of paper ......, and eventually took Anne for their own. Works Cited Blair, John. "'The Lie We Must Learn to Live By': Honor and Tradition in 'All the King's Men'." Rev. of All the King's Men. Studies in the Novel 25.4 (1993): 457+. Questoa online library. Network. 7 December 2011. Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Interpretations: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1987. Questoa Online Library. Network. December 7, 2011. Ferriss, Lucy. “Sleeping with the Boss: Female Subjectivity in the Fiction of Robert Penn Warren.” Mississippi Quarterly 48 (1994): n. page Questoa online library. Network. December 7, 2011.Gianos, Phillip L. Politics and politicians in American cinema. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998. Questoa Online Library. Network. December 7, 2011.Warren, Robert Penn. All the king's men. Second Harvest ed. Orlando: Harcourt Books, 1996. Print.