William Rosenberg Blog #3 ATKM

Good vs Bad

Men: Ordered Good to Bad

1. Scholarly Attorney:  The Scholarly Attorney, or the man who Jack thought was his father didn't play a very big role in the book.  When the reader was learning the background information on Jack, he was briefly mentioned, and he comes into the story when Jack meets the Scholarly Attorney in his room above the saloon.  Even though the Scholarly Attorney left Jack's mom, I feel that he is the character with the best intentions.  He spends all his own time taking care of the "unfortunates", who seem to not be able to keep their own spit in their mouths.
2. Judge Irwin:  Had it not been for the dirt that Jack dug up on Judge Irwin, I would have put him at the number 1 place.  The Judge seems like an all around good person.  He acts as a father figure to Jack and the Stantons (haha) and he seems to have a strong sense of morality.  The Judge's only error was accepting a corrupt bribe that led to a man, Mortimer Littlepaugh, to kill himself.
3. Cass Mastern:  Cass Mastern's life ended in a noble manner.  He felt responsible for the death of his friend, and wanted to right his wrongs.  All though Cass spent most of his life searching for a lost slave, something I would consider noble, he could have avoided all the trouble if he didn't have an affair with his friend's wife, Annabelle.  
4. Jack Burden: I think that Jack was a good person at heart; he was just troubled.  He always had a somewhat cynical outlook on things, which someone really should have if they do Jack's job.  While his primary occupation was to pretty much dig up dirt on people, he still carried with him a sense of morality.  He even refrained from giving Willie the information he found out about the Judge
5. Sugar Boy:  Sugar Boy was a loyal henchman for Willie.  I put Sugar Boy in the middle, because, while he never did much wrong, he never did much right.  Sugar Boy was a reckless driver, a hot head and what seemed to be an alcoholic.  Despite this, he was a very loyal bodyguard and friend to Willie.  His one mistake was killing Adam, and even that was in retaliation to Adam shooting Willie.
6. Tom Talos:  Tom lived a wild and reckless life style.  Heavy partying and other irresponsible actions led to the death of him and even a girl.  At heart, Tom is a good person.  He seems to be willing to face the choices he made and accept their consequences.  He also seems to be against Willie's style of politics.  While Tom's morals may be strong, he is still a teenage football star with a rich and powerful dad, and he makes the choices one in his situation may be expected to make.
7. Adam Stanton:  Adam would've been at the top of the "Good Person" list had he not killed Willie.  Adam constantly fought for what was right and tried to stay un involved in the corrupt world of politics.  Although he failed his goal when he accepted the position of head of Willie's new hospital, he still tried to his best to be a good person.  Of course, he threw that all away when he killed Willie out of a fit of rage.
8. Willie Talos:  There are two main reasons why Willie is the second worst person in ATKM.  First of all, Willie perfectly represents the notoriously corrupt "Political Machine".  Willie plays dirty politics; he digs dirt, he makes shady deals, and he lies.  Willie is constantly selling his projects which he labels as "for the community", to the company which offers him the most support.
9. Tiny Duffy:  Reason number two why Willie is only the second worst person in ATKM, Tiny Duffy.  Tiny Duffy is just and all around sleazy jerk, to put it nicely.  He first got involved with Willie by encouraging him to run as a scapegoat.  After Willie finds power and influence, Tiny Duffy quickly switches allegiance to support the winning party.  Tiny Duffy is basically Willie's dirty work guy.  He's paid to deal with all the "nitty gritty".  In addition to all of this, every time Tiny Duffy had dialogue, it made me mad.  He just seemed like the most pompous and aggravating person.

Women: Good to Bad

1. Lucy Talos:  Probably the best person in this book.  Not only did Lucy manage to deal with Willie and the scumbag he became, but she also tried her hardest to teach Tom how to be a decent man, unlike his father.  When Tom got into a car crash, she wanted him to own up to his deeds and face the punishment.
2. Lois:  Lois didn't serve much of a purpose in the book, except for giving some background onto Jack.  Lois was fundamentally a fine person, nothing she did really qualified her as bad or good.  Her relationship with Jack failed basically because Lois wasn't Ann.
3. Ann Stanton:  I really disliked Ann's character, she just seemed like a weak person.  She had an affair with Willie because she admired his confidence and charisma, but also because Willie was giving to her charity.  Also, Ann allowed herself to be manipulated into giving Willie information that he was not supposed to know.
4. Sadie:  Sadie was another one of Willie's affairs.  Not only this, bust she was also Willie's secretary.  She was part of his inner circle that helped him with his political wrong doings.  Although she specifically didn't do that much wrong, she greatly aided Willie in his practice of corrupt politics.
5. Annabelle Trice:  Annabelle, although not even a character in the main story, was by far the worst woman mentioned in ATKM.  First, she had an affair with her husband's best friend, Cass.  Then, after she had the affair, she sold off her slave, Phoebe, because she was worried that the Slave had witnessed the event.  In part, Annabelle's action led to her husband killing himself, Phoebe being sold away, and Cass chasing Phoebe for the rest of his life.  Of course, Cass also takes an equal share of the blame for this.