Washington, DC (Symbol)
So much of the book takes place in so many different places inside the nation’s capital—from upscale homes in Georgetown to the Library of Congress to cavernous parking garages—that the city takes on the symbolism of a location apart from the reality outside it. The Washington that Woodstein operates within is a dark, murky labyrinth containing truth at its center, but also monsters that must be slayed and twists and turns that must be navigated before that center is reached.
Telephones (Motif)
Reportage was largely conducted over the telephone line in the early 1970s. The phone becomes the link by which communication is established between reporters and their sources and the targets of their articles. It's important to understand, however, that a struggle over telephone communication is also, indirectly, what brought down the President. The burglars broke into the Watergate Hotel in part for the purpose of bugging the telephone lines of the Democratic Party. Phones were the lifeblood of communication and also the means by which communication could occasionally break down.
Deep Throat (Symbol)
“Deep Throat” is a character, but he exists also as a collective symbolic figure for every unnamed, unidentified whistleblower, without whom investigative reporting of all kinds would eventually get stuck at a point of no return.
All the President's Men (Allusion)
The very title indicates that those working for the Nixon administration are to be viewed in somewhat allegorical terms as the offspring of aristocratic courtiers. The title alludes to the phrase “all the king’s men” and, indeed, the investigation into the excesses of the Nixon White House eventually become indicative of an administration with a keen view of itself in imperial terms. All the “President’s men” considered themselves above the law just as those in the service of a monarch who are protected by absolute power.
Dirty Tricks (Motif)
The dirty tricks of the Nixon administration from the Watergate break-in to the Canuck letter meant to sink Edmund Muskie are symbolic of the autocratic tendencies of an administration in what was created as a democracy. This corruption, while trivialized as simple tricks, illustrate an underlying arrogance of the Nixon administration and a willingness to manipulate political outcomes for their own gain.
