All The King's Men: Dialect 2 key examples

Forrest is known for the Battle at Fort Pillow, where he and his cavalry massacred hundreds of Union soldiers who were trying to surrender, the majority of them Black, part of the U.S. Colored Corps. After the war, Forrest joined the Ku Klux Klan and became its first Grand Wizard. Jack, seeing the soda jerk's leathery appearance and country clothes, thinks that he looks like one of these cavalrymen; in other words, Jack thinks that the man looks like a racist, a rural conservative who might have fought with the Confederates some 60 years before. This is indicative of Jack's worldview. Raised in wealth and highly educated, Jack is generally disparaging toward, and often assumes the worst of, those of lower social and economic classes. 

Willie, though, is different. For all his flaws, the Boss is an excellent politician and knows how to communicate with his constituents. He has a full conversation with the soda jerk, who he knows on a first-name basis, and despite their distinctly different dialects, they hold a friendly discussion:

"How you making it, Malaciah?"

Cite this Quote

The Adam's apple worked a couple of times, and the Boss shook the hand which was hanging out there in the air as if it didn't belong to anybody, and Old Leather-Face said, "We's grabblen." 

"How's your boy?" the Boss asked.

"Ain't doen so good," Old Leather-Face allowed.

"Sick?"

"Naw," Old Leather-Face allowed, "jail."

"My God," the Boss said, "what they doing round here, putting good boys in jail?"

"He's a good boy," Old Leather-Face allowed. "Hit wuz a fahr fight, but he had a lettle bad luck."

Malaciah has a strongly inflected dialect, as recorded by Jack in his narration. For one thing, this helps to set the scene in Mason City, as Malaciah's accent shows that this area is especially rural and isolated. His dialect continues to emphasize the difference between him and the more well-to-do visitors to Mason City. But while Jack's narration continues to call Malaciah "Old Leather-Face," Willie shows his inherent goodwill toward his constituents and checks in on family members. Willie knows that this kind of on-the-ground knowledge of his constituency is crucial and that keeping tabs on important figures in Mason City is important to his campaign. (Note that "Malaciah" is a version of the biblical name "Malachi," which means "messenger.") Malaciah is certainly different from Jack and Willie in both his appearance and dialect. But Jack and Willie, as above, react differently to Malaciah, showing Jack's classism and misanthropy and Willie's charisma and fairness.

Jack realizes that Willie did not paint the house because he did not want to seem rich and vain to rural Mason County residents. (Willie did install an electric pump in the bathroom: he will happily help his father, but only in ways not visible from the street.) In this realization, Jack imagines "the next fellow down the road" and creates a very strongly inflected dialect for him. This imaginary man—indeed, Jack never seems to meet anyone else in this area outside Mason City—has an even more distinct dialect than Malaciah, the soda jerk Willie speaks with earlier in the chapter. Jack changes nearly every word here, including "enuff," "lak," and "wuz."

The stronger dialect serves to emphasize the point that Jack is making about why Willie didn't paint the house— that he wanted to seem like a man of the people, and the people around there are quite rural and conservative, as reflected by the dialect. Because Jack invented this man and the way he speaks, though, this dialect also reflects on Jack, who typically has little respect for these rural people around Mason City, and portrays them with an exaggerated caricature of an accent.