How important is the setting in a novel about corruption, politics and passion? In Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, location is everything. Although the direct setting of the novel is unknown, a historical parallel reveals that Louisiana is 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 journalism has the benefit of presenting history in such a vivid way (Bloom 42). However, the story would be bland without the various settings that directly correlate to the characters' thoughts and actions. Harold Bloom, professor of humanities at Yale University, writes: "This occurs in an American world that is depicted in beautifully precise detail, a world of country farms, county courthouses and hotels small towns, pool halls and slum apartments and the "nauseating fox-smelling liars" of cheap rooming houses, places in Burden's Landing, the Governor's Mansion and the Capital of State, country fairgrounds, urban football stadiums and endless highways. This long list of settings in the novel makes no sense without the characters who live and travel there. In Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the use of setting is important in revealing the opinions and personal struggles of the characters, particularly those of Jack Burden and Willie Stark. Burden's Landing, Jack's family's namesake town, is the site he grew up in and frequently visits. Named in memory of his grandfather's success and popularity within the community, Jack called the Landing his home during the school year and summer as a child, but summer at Burden's Landing appealed to him the most. His friends Adam and Anne Stanton worked through the middle of the paper ......tions, and eventually took Anne as their own. Works Cited Blair, John. ““The lie we must learn to live by”: honor and tradition in “All the King’s Men.” » Reverend of All the King's Men. Studies in the Novel 25.4 (1993): 457+. Questia Online Library. Internet. December 7, 2011. Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern critical interpretations: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1987. Questia Online Library. Internet. December 7, 2011. Ferriss, Lucy. “Sleeping with the Boss: Female Subjectivity in the Fiction of Robert Penn Warren.” » The Mississippi Quarterly 48 (1994): n. page. Questia Online Library. Internet. December 7, 2011. Gianos, Phillip L. Politics and Politicians in American Cinema. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998. Questia Online Library. Internet. December 7, 2011.Warren, Robert Penn. All the king's men. Second harvest ed. Orlando: Harcourt Books, 1996. Print.