All the King's Men is not the story of one man's political rise and fall, but the story of two men. Willie, whom many take as the main character, may not even be the main character, but Jack Burden. But in all, Robert Penn Warren's novel is not the story of a singular man or two men, but a complex story of human achievement, failings, errors, and ideals.
             Jack Burden distinctly goes through a profound change throughout the course of the novel. Jack Burden calls himself a "student of history," only caring about revealing the truth, and taking pride once unraveling the past. Through the course of the novel, Jack Burden seems to question his status to only find the truth, and comes to the question, what really is the truth? Are there really two truths, one being qualitative and the other being quantitative? This conflict is brought up in many aspects of the novel, and by realizing the significance of Jack's awareness of this conflict do you realize that the novel really isn't the story about Governor Willie Stark, but the story of Jack's "spiritual odyssey." Jack hasn't really discovered who he really is in the beginning of the novel, as is shown through his confrontation of the judge with Governor Stark,
             "...The Judge swung his face in my direction...and he said, 'Your employer is calling you Mr. Burden...Christ, Jack, you talk like a snot, Christ, you are a smart guy...I had just about made the door, when he said, 'I'm dining with your mother this week. Shall I tell her you still like your work...Why won't he lay off?"
             Jack is evidently hiding behind a false facade he has setup to confront meeting an old mentor, a father figure for him. Throughout the story as he finds out who he is, he is only hampered by his own self-denial of the growing compassion within himself.
             Mainly, Jack Burden goes through several stages as a "s...