Literary Analysis 3



Amantha Starr, born and raised by a doting father on a Kentucky plantation in the years before the Civil War, is the heroine of this powerfully dramatic novel. At her father's death Amantha learns that her mother was a slave and that she, too, is to be sold into servitude. What follows is a vast panorama of one of the most turbulent periods of American History as seen through the eyes of star-crossed young woman. Amantha soon finds herself in New Orleans, where she spends the war years with Hamish Bond, a slave trader. At war's end, she marries Tobias Sears, a Union officer and Emersonian idealist. Despite sporadic periods of contentment, Amantha finds life with Tobias trying, and she is haunted still by her tangled past. "Oh, who am I?" she asks at the beginning of the novel. Only after many years, after achieving a hard-won wisdom and maturity, does she begin to understand that question. Band of Angels puts on ready display Robert Penn Warren's prodigious gifts. First published in 1955, it is one of the most searing and vivid fictional accounts of the Civil War era ever written. AS a resident of the south Warren's southern views always rise up in his literature and dominate his novels, yet it is what give him such genius poetic and writing skills.

All the King's Men proved to be a novel that earned author Robert Penn Warren his status as not only an established author, but as an author that was willing to expose the darker side of politics in general. This is the what the author of the analysis gives Penn the most credit for in his article. The author acknowledges that Penn openly displays the dark methods used to build a new school or hospital and does nothing to glamorize the under the table deeds. He notes that Penn's work forced people to be aware of the fact that politics both local and on a larger scale does affect the every day lives of citizens. While Penn's main political character Willie Stark may have faced opposition to his ideals, there was little done to stop his blackmailing scare tactics and he eventually got his way. By drawing attention to this, the author of the criticism gives credit to Penn for encouraging political participation from the general population. There is not much that Penn does not expose concerning the lengths that politician's will go to in order to achieve the results that they want in their communities. Penn is praised for this and for his underlying message of accountability on both the politician's and the people's part. The fact that Penn was willing to take such a risk and expose such dark political workings is what, according to this author, put him on the map as a great author.