Allusion Paragraph

In Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, the character Cass Mastern is representative of of the Greek legend Cassandra. Cassandra, who had the power to tell the future, is relative to Mastern as his journals serve as a startling message to his descendant Jack Burden. Mastern states that his single act of sin committed with Annabelle Trice upset the fabric of his entire world; because of it, his best friend died and the innocent slave, Phebe, was sold into an unknown future. Jack Burden feels that perhaps he did not finish his analysis of Mastern's journals "because he was afraid to understand for what might be understood there was a reproach to him." These journals serve as foresight to Burden's future as he witnessed the results of his actions in the deaths of Judge Irwin, Adam Stanton, and Willie Stark. Jack's relationship with Judge Irwin had once been fatherly, but changed when Jack uncovered the Judge's splotchy past under the orders of Willie Stark. Jack does not see Judge Irwin as a hero at all times, although the man had attempted to have a fatherly relationship with his biological son. The Greek character Telemachus is abandoned by his father and does not recognize him upon his reappearance; similarly, Jack is left behind by the Scholarly Attorney at a young age and later realizes that he must find the answer to the question, "Who is my father?" before he can answer it in regards to himself.