The Devil and Humpty Dumpty: A Girardian Reading of All the King's Men

Abstract

Using René Girard’s mimetic theory, this article breaks new and important ground in the scholarly treatment of Robert Penn Warren’s award-winning All the King’s Men. The novel depicts a society in the midst of a major political and social crisis. Anger, envy, resentment, and corruption are widespread. For Girard, such a crisis almost always culminates in an act of spectacular community violence—a scapegoating event—that brings peace and renews order. This is exactly how the novel concludes. By intuiting (if not consciously understanding) the relationship between mimetic conflict and violence, the novel illustrates what Girard sees as the “satanic” foundation of political and social order as such. This article not only sheds new light on the novel. It also demonstrates the value of Girard’s mimetic theory for research in the areas of American literature and political theory.