Literature has become my spectator sport since crossing the threshold into the literary world; it made me discover more about people I knew in every book, poem, or short story I encountered. In 2017, while reading a short story on a major publishing house’s website, this annoying side ad dashed across the computer screen. Distracted, I looked at it. It was an ad featuring a quiz that predicts which literary character I am most comparable to. Hooked, I clicked on it. After I answered ten quiz questions, the result declared: I am like Rosalind in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: authentic, warm, limitless, and quick. To some degree, it was right.
I love using literature as a guide, although some may balk at me making conclusions about a person’s character or the outcome of an event based on one’s relationship with a character from literature, it’s really no more outlandish than relying on knowledge gained from history. It allows an even deeper dive into the human experience. The strongest characters in fiction grapple with the same moral and ethical quandaries we do; they feel the same range of emotions and confront the kinds of “truths” our society is forced to confront.
So, I will decipher how the following literary mainstays will vote in a tight election. This list ranges from Jack Burden from All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, Willie Keith from The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk, Larry Beinhart from Wag the Dog by Larry Beinhart, and finally, Urania Cabral in The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Jack Burden
The narrator of All the Kings Men is observant and articulate. He is demonstrably keen-eyed and a competent observer of the people and things he encounters. He sees the world as flawed and wonders if there is genuine goodness or progress. He also asks big philosophical questions about history, truth, and human nature. Jack’s relationship with Willie Stark is a prime example of his contradictory nature. He is both repulsed by and drawn to Stark’s methods and personality. I can’t imagine a reader who could predict he would vote for the right in any election.
Willie Keith
In contrast with Jack Burden, Willie Keith is marked by Indecision, has a susceptibility to influence, and a nostalgia for simpler times. He is still determining what career to pick and if he has the stuff to stand up to the people in charge. Influence? You bet he doesn’t have a clue. If ever there were a candidate for “superficial factor or emotional appeal” voting, this is it. Keith is a complex character to figure out because of his political illusion. He will be uncommitted. Let’s now proceed to satire.
Conrad Brean
The satirical novel Wag the Dog features Conrad Brean, a charming but remorseless political “spin doctor,” as its protagonist. Brean combines charm and ruthlessness in a way most effective for his work. He oozes confidence and charisma, but beneath Brean’s polished surface is a cold, calculating mind that constantly looks for ways to use people and situations to his advantage. Helter-skelter as Brean’s plans may seem, they unfurl with an audacious cunning. Brean’s operations, in short, are democratic disasters. Brean would have been the perfect voter for the right.
Urania Cabral
Finally, the protagonist of Mario Vargas Llosa’s novel The Feast of the Goat, Urania Cabral, is a woman of many parts and few fears. Bright, beautiful, and brave, she defies the death-dealing dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. In her independent and successful life, she is not tamed by the memory either of her father’s collaboration with the regime or of the abuse she suffered at the hands of the Trujillo henchmen. Cabral’s experience and hate for all things authoritarian would have prepared her to wage war against fascism and its allies. Urania would have voted for democracy.
This post isn’t about political identification; it’s an invitation to engage with human nature’s more complex reality—to think hard about what motivates us, what we believe in and stand for, and why we choose to do what we do. Our actions are shaped by our ideals. These interactions between literature, identity, and the never-boring human condition are rich with possibility and will pay dividends when measuring human character.
Meet the blogger:
JAMAL AWIL is a literary enthusiast who loves reading literature without discrimination. He is now a member of the Runestone editorial committee on the upcoming issue and an undergraduate student at Hamline University. Passionate about words and their power, he runs a new literary journal, Polymath Review, from his basement.
