Summery and context description of All the Kings Men Robert Penn Warren

Summery and context description of All the Kings Men Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren was one of the twentieth century's outstanding men of letters. He found great success as a novelist, a poet, a critic, and a scholar, and enjoyed a career showered with acclaim. He won two Pulitzer Prizes, was Poet Laureate of the United States, and was presented with a Congressional Medal of Freedom. He founded the Southern Review and was an important contributor to the New Criticism of 1930s and '40s. Born in 1905, Warren showed his exceptional intelligence from an early age; he attended college at Vanderbilt University, where he befriended some of the most important contemporary figures in Southern literature, including Allan Tate and John Crowe Ransom, and where he won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England.During a stay in Italy, Warren wrote a verse drama called Proud Flesh, which dealt with themes of political power and moral corruption. As a professor at Louisiana State University, Warren had observed the rise of Louisiana political b oss Huey Long, who embodied, in many ways, the ideas Warren tried to work into Proud Flesh.Signature of Robert Penn Warren from the Signed Li...Unsatisfied with the result, Warren began to rework his elaborate drama into a novel, set in the contemporary South, and based in part on the person of Huey Long. The result was All the King's Men, Warren's best and most acclaimed book. First published in 1946, All the King's Men is one of the best literary documents dealing with the American South during the Great Depression. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize, and was adapted into a movie that won an Academy Award in 1949.All the King's Men focuses on the lives of Willie Stark, an upstart farm boy who rises through sheer force of will to become Governor of an unnamed Southern state during the 1930s, and Jack Burden, the novel's narrator, a cynical scion of the state's political aristocracy who uses his abilities as a historical researcher to help Willie blackmail and control his enemies. The novel deals with the large question of the responsibility individuals bear for their actions within the turmoil of history, and it is perhaps appropriate that the impetus of the novel's story comes partly from real historical occurrences. Jack Burden is entirely a creation of Robert Penn Warren, but there are a number of important parallels between Willie Stark and Huey Long, who served Louisiana as both Governor and Senator from 1928 until his death in 1935.Like Huey Long, Willie Stark is an uneducated farm boy who passed the state bar exam; like Huey Long, he rises to political power in his state by instituting liberal reform designed to help the state's poor farmers. And like Huey Long, Willie is assassinated at the peak of his power by a doctorDr. Adam Stanton in Willie's case, Dr. Carl A. Weiss in Long's. (Unlike Willie, however, Long was assassinated after becoming a Senator, and was in fact in the middle of challenging Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.)SummaryAll the King's Men is the story of the rise and fall of a political titan in the Deep South during the 1930s. Willie Stark rises from hardscrabble poverty to become governor of his state and its most powerful political figure; he blackmails and bullies his enemies into submission, and institutes a radical series of liberal reforms designed to tax the rich and ease the burden of the state's poor farmers. He is beset with enemiesmost notably Sam MacMurfee, a defeated former governor who constantly searches for ways to undermine Willie's powerand surrounded by a rough mix of political allies and hired thugs, from the bodyguard Sugar-Boy O'Sheean to the fat, obsequious Tiny Duffy.All the King's Men is also the story of Jack Burden, the scion of one of the state's aristocratic dynasties, who turns his back on his genteel upbringing and becomes Willie Stark's right-hand man. Jack uses his considerable talents as a historical researcher to dig up the unpleasan t secrets of Willie's enemies, which are then used for purposes of blackmail. Cynical and lacking in ambition, Jack has walked away from many of his past interestshe left his dissertation in American History unfinished, and never managed to marry his first love, Anne Stanton, the daughter of a former governor of the state.When Willie asks Jack to look for skeletons in the closet of Judge Irwin, a father figure from Jack's childhood, Jack is forced to confront his ideas concerning consequence, responsibility, and motivation. He discovers that Judge Irwin accepted a bribe, and that Governor Stanton covered it up; the resulting blackmail attempt leads to Judge Irwin's suicide. It also leads to Adam Stanton's decision to accept the position of director of the new hospital Willie is building, and leads Anne to begin an affair with Willie. When Adam learns of the affair, he murders Willie in a rage, and Jack leaves politics forever.Willie's death and the circumstances in which it occurs f orce Jack to rethink his desperate belief that no individual can ever be responsible for the consequences of any action within the chaos and tumult of history and time. Jack marries Anne Stanton and begins working on a book about Cass Mastern, the man whose papers he had once tried to use as the source for his failed dissertation in American History.

21 Plutonium Facts (Pu or Atomic Number 94)

21 Plutonium Facts (Pu or Atomic Number 94) You probably know that plutonium is an element and that plutonium is radioactive, but what else do you know about it? Learn more with these fascinating facts about plutonium. Fast Facts: Plutonium Name: PlutoniumElement Symbol: PuAtomic Number: 94Atomic Mass: 244 (for the most stable isotope)Appearance: A silvery-white solid metal at room temperature, which quickly oxidizes to dark gray in airElement Type: ActinideElectron Configuration:  [Rn] 5f6  7s2 Facts About Plutonium Here are 21 useful and interesting facts about plutonium: The element symbol for plutonium is Pu, rather than Pl, because this was a more amusing, easily remembered symbol.  The element was synthetically produced by Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, J.W. Kennedy, and A.C. Wahl at the University of California at Berkeley in 1940–1941. The researchers submitted news of the discovery and the proposed name and symbol to the journal Physical Review but withdrew it when it became apparent plutonium could be used for an atomic bomb. The elements discovery was kept secret until after World War II.Pure plutonium is a silvery-white metal, although it quickly oxidizes in air to a dull finish.The atomic number of plutonium is 94, meaning all atoms of plutonium have 94 protons.  It has an atomic weight around 244, a melting point of  640 C (1183 F), and a boiling point of  3228 C (5842 F).Plutonium oxide forms on the surface of plutonium exposed to air. The oxide is pyrophoric, so pieces of plutonium might glow like embers as the outer coating burns. Plutonium is one of a handful of radioactive elements that glows in the dark, although the glow is from heat. Ordinarily, there are six allotropes, or forms, of plutonium. A seventh allotrope exists at high temperatures. These allotropes have different crystal structures and densities. Changes in environmental conditions readily cause plutonium to shift from one allotrope to another, making plutonium a difficult metal to machine. Alloying the element with other metals (e.g., aluminum, cerium, gallium) helps make it possible to work and weld the material.Plutonium displays colorful oxidation states in aqueous solution. These states tend not to be stable, so plutonium solutions may spontaneously change oxidation states and colors.  The colors of the oxidation states are as follows:Pu(III) is lavender or violet.​Pu(IV) is golden brown.Pu(V) is pale pink.Pu(VI) is orange-pink.Pu(VII) is green. Note this oxidation state is uncommon. The 2 oxidation state also occurs in complexes.Unlike most substances, plutonium increases in density as it melts. The increase in density is about 2.5%. Nea r its melting point, liquid plutonium also exhibits higher-than-usual viscosity and surface tension for a metal. Plutonium is used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are used to power spacecraft. The element has been used in nuclear weapons, including the Trinity test and the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Plutonium-238 was once used to power heart pacemakers.Plutonium and its compounds are toxic and accumulate in bone marrow. Inhalation of plutonium and its compounds increases the risk of lung cancer, although many people have inhaled substantial amounts of plutonium yet didnt develop lung cancer. Inhaled plutonium is said to have a metallic taste.Criticality accidents involving plutonium have occurred. The amount of plutonium required for critical mass is about one-third that necessary for uranium-235. Plutonium in solution is more likely to form critical mass than solid plutonium because the hydrogen in water acts as a moderator.Plutonium is not magnetic. Other members of the element group stick to magnets, but plutonium can have a variable number of electrons in its valenc e shell, which makes it difficult for the unpaired electrons to align in a magnetic field. The element name follows the trend of uranium and neptunium being named for planets outward from the Sun. Plutonium is named for the dwarf planet Pluto.Plutonium is not a good conductor of electricity or heat, unlike some metals.The alpha form of plutonium is hard and brittle, while the delta form is soft and ductile.Plutonium occurs naturally in the Earths crust in uranium ores, but it is very rare. The main source of the element is synthesis in reactors from uranium-238.Plutonium is a member of the actinide element group, which makes it a type of transition metal.