ATKM 1

Jack Burden came from a wealthy background but chose a poorer life, creating an attitude of contempt both for the poor ‘country hicks’ and the wealthy elite he once was friends with. Towards the beginning of Willie Talos’s rag-to-riches story, Jack feels compelled to side with him against the subtle but cruel mocking of Alex Michel and Tiny Duffy. “You could look at Willie and see that he never had been and never would be in politics,” (29). Because of his poor country background these men do not believe he could be a politician. Jack admires something about him, and detests the behavior of these rich people, so he sides with Talos for the moment. However, later on, Talos is seduced into running for Governor and Jack and Sadie become angry at him for being such a fool and believing he could actually become governor, and for not understanding his place in life. “All that was in me as I suddenly felt sore at him and asked him snottily if he expected me to hold his hand,” (111). Jack feels the same way as Tiny Duffy had earlier in the book; Willie Talos was not meant to be a politician, he was just a hick and he wasn’t going anywhere. His contempt for the wealth, however, comes less from an ideological perspective and more from a deep-rooted place of vengeance and anger towards his family. As an act against his mother, he refuses to go to a nice school or take any of her money or get a nice job and be rich. She gave him money, and he didn’t even use it to make himself presentable like she wanted. “The check was for two hundred and fifty dollars. He did not even buy a neck tie. But he and the two other men in the apartment had a wonderful blow-out, which lasted for five days,” (227). He is most in contempt, however, of honorable poverty; people choosing the poorer life and rejecting money for some honorable reason. His father abandoned the wealthy life for a life of charity, and described the corrupt, wealthy past as “foulness,” to which Jack replied, “I felt like grabbing him and shaking him until his teeth rattled,” (285). When he’s trying to buy information from a poor woman, he tries to give her money and she shirks away. ““Pick up the bill. It’s yours.” “No,” she said quickly and huskily, “no,”” (314). The idea of people refusing to better themselves, too ‘moral’ to survive, kills him, despite the fact that he himself did this. As a ‘Burden’, rejected by the woman he loved most of his life and doing contrary things to displease his parents, his entire life is one pile of self loathing.