Character Willie Stark in Jack Burden's Novel Willie Stark is the most powerful, the most dominating character in the novel, and it seems to be, primarily, his story that Jack Burden tells. Willie's character goes through many changes, his beliefs change etc., as his political career progresses. Willie's success and ultimate loss of power can be viewed as the fate of all politicians. All politicians have to go through the metamorphosis that Willie travels through. Between the late summer of 1936 and the early fall of 1937-the present time of the novel as far as Willie Stark is concerned-Willie exhibits a number of characteristics, some of them seeming