The story of Jack Burden presented in All the King's Men shows his discovery of self and everything that affects and pushes this discovery. His story is told in two parts, his past and present. He avoids his present, and is only able to conceive a future when his self-identity is discovered. As the Narrator, Jack only tells of the past; however, as the story unfolds it is easier to associate the parts in past and present. In Robert Penn Warren's, Democracy and Poetry, "self" is explicated as "an individuation, the felt principle of significant unity" (Cullick 197). In a sense, the novel is primarily based upon Jack's discovery of self, as are many of Warren's less complex works. Jack's search for self-identity plays a prominent role in the novel All the King's Men and, ultimately, connects the events that occur.

Robert Penn Warren uses the theme of self...