"All the King's Men" Quotations Quiz

Answer: Slade

Slade is serving beer to Jack Burden, Tiny Duffy, and Alex Michel during Prohibition in this flashback to 1922. Willie Stark's wife Lucy does not approve of drinking, so he takes an orange pop. It is in this flashback that Jack Burden, the main character, is introduced to Willie Stark, then a county treasurer, through their mutual friend, Alex Michel, who serves no purpose for the remainder of the story.

Answer: Sadie Burke

Sadie Burke says these lines when Jack, Lucy, and the Boss (Willie Stark) are at the Old Man Stark's house for a photo shoot in 1936. Jack and the Boss are talking in the barn lot when Sadie comes to inform the Boss that Judge Irwin has decided to take a case for Callahan.

Answer: Dolph Pillsbury

In this scene from 1922, Jack Burden is in Mason City as a reporter for "The Chronicle" to "see who the hell that fellow Stark is who thinks he is Jesus Christ scourging the money-changers out of that chinplaster courthouse up there". He goes first to the Mason City Cafe, outside of which he talks to some locals about the issue, then to the sheriff's office to find out whose business the schoolhouse is, and then to Pillsbury's office to learn his opinion of the matter.

It ends up that Willie Stark, then the county treasurer, is right to not trust the company whose bid was accepted, for the schoolhouse fire escapes collapsed two years after, killing three children and injuring over a dozen more.

Answer: Sadie Burke

In this excerpt, Sadie, thinking that Jack had already done so, lets Willie Stark know that he has been set up by the opposing party, and especially by Tiny Duffy to split the Democratic vote. As a result, Willie gets drunk, tears up his rehearsed speeches, publicly denounces Tiny Duffy, resigns from the elections for governor, and throws his support behind MacMurfee.

Answer: Judge Irwin

Referring to the Boss, this quotation provides one of the most educated views on Stark's position as governor that is seen in this novel. It is obvious that the Judge does not like the Boss, or his methods of achieving his goals. However, Judge Irwin does respect many of Stark's goals, and does respect him as a man.

Answer: The Scholarly Attorney

This is from a religious argument that Jack had with the Scholarly Attorney when he (Jack) was a child. The argument helps emphasize Jack's moral progress throughout the years. He is, at the point of being in Chapter 3, rather behavioristic and nihilistic. His progress is marked by what occurs in each chapter.

Answer: Willie Stark

The Boss says this after he asks Jack to dig up something on the Judge. Jack is skeptical that there is anything to be dug up on this matter, and the Boss responds with these lines. Although the nature of these lines causes the reader to not want there to be anything to be dug up on the Judge, he is correct in what he says, or at least in the case of all but one character- his wife, Lucy.

Answer: Annabelle Trice

This line is spoken a little while before Annabelle Trice and Cass Mastern begin their affair. This affair has great significance in the novel. Although it took place in the mid-1800s, the consequences of Cass Mastern's actions, culminating in the Spider Web Theory, dictate the reader's view on the rest of the novel.

The Spider Web Theory originally advances Jack's behavioristic and nihilistic ways of thinking. However, his views change as the Spider Web affects his life and the lives around him.

Answer: Anne Stanton

Although the scene begins as an interrogation about whether or not Anne knows any dirt on Judge Irwin, it quickly turns into a line of hurting accusations. Jack, actually in love with Anne, no matter whether or not he wants to admit it, is rather offended by the fact that Anne "had lunch" with the Boss on business for the Children's Home. Jack knows how the Boss can be with women, so he attacks Anne, believing her to have had an affair with him (she actually does, but that isn't discovered until later).

Answer: Jack Burden

Jack has come down to the last link in his chain of investigation concerning the Case of the Upright Judge. He is asking Miss Littlepaugh to reveal to him the letter that her brother, Mortimer Lonzo Littlepaugh, wrote to her before he committed suicide.

The letter, although it would originally have denied Mortimer L. Littlepaugh entrance to burial in the church and would have denied Miss Littlepaugh his insurance money, is asked for in order to be used as proof against the Judge. The Judge had become corrupt, had taken a bribe for a company in order to keep his house and his land, had displaced M.L. Littlepaugh, and had driven M.L. Littlepaugh to the extremity of suicide.

The Boss later wants to use the dug-up information (although he is never told what it is) in order to blackmail Judge Irwin into selling out MacMurfee.