All My Sons Essays

All My Sons
All My Sons – What do you believe to be the social, moral message of the play? How does Miller
convey this to his audience?
Arthur Miller's play, 'All my sons' contains many different social, moral messages. Within this play
Miller has successfully portrayed the moral dilemma as to where responsibility begins and where it
ends.
Choices and decisions occur throughout the play, with each character having to make their own
decision. Miller questions forgiveness through all the characters especially the Keller family. Can
any one be truly forgiven? Guilt is also a huge theme within this play. In
'all my sons' Miller confronts the issue of a sinner accepting his sin and recognising what he has
done wrong. In this case, Joe Keller...show more content...
He doesn't follow the traditional American dream like his father. Chris' eyes are open to reality. The
American dream is to "do what you must to achieve your goal."
Miller attacks this and conveys his views upon the American dream by the consequences of
Keller's actions. You cannot displace morals and do what you wish to get what you want. You
have to remember the ripple effect and this is what Miller shows his audience. What you do affects
other people too. Keller sacrifices the lives of others to keep what he had achieved. If he hadn't
followed his distorted perception of the
American dream he would of lost everything but the soldiers would of survived. Although there are
many moral issues, I personally feel that the most important issue is that if during your pursuit for
success you hurt or endanger others. You are not a success you have failed, failed to live morally
right.
Miller conveys the issues of the play in a theatrical tradition similar to that of the ancient Greek
plays. Each action in they play has repercussions throughout and each section entwines with another.
With the use of stage directions and dramatic speeches Miller makes sure the play is performed in
a way that catches the audiences attention and draws them in. The three acts all take place over the
course of one day and whole play is acted on the same set. This makes the audience feel more
involved with the play and they can relate to it more
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All My Sons By Arthur Miller
Dramatic tension is a figurative device an author would use to add tension to conflict between
characters. In Arthur Miller's play, All My Sons, dramatic tension is created by using theoretical
devices and language, utilizing conflicting character personalities, dramatic irony, and character
development, to exhibit dramatic tension in order to keep the audience engaged in the play. ACT 1
At the beginning of Act One, when Keller gives the audience first impressions of characters, the
audience begins to foreshadow conflicts between the characters based on each individual character's
personality, this is one of the first examples of foreshadowing conflict for the audience. "KELLER is
nearing sixty. A heavy man of stolid mind and build, a business man these many years, but with the
imprint of the machine–shop working and boss still upon him. When he reads, when he speaks, when
he listens, it is with the terrible concentration of the uneducated man from whom there is still
wonder in many commonly known things, a man whose judgements must be dredged out of
experience and a peasant–like common sense. A man among men." (6). When Miller describes Joe
Keller in the beginning of the play, he describes him from the perspective of somebody who has a
well thought out first impression of him, giving the audience an impression of him. When Miller
describes Keller as "A man among men." (6), the audience can assume he is indifferent to others,
Miller still maintains a description of Joe

All My Sons Character Analysis
"All my Sons" by Arthur Miller is a play portrayed in the time era after World War Two. It
revolves around the Keller's, Deever's, Bayles's, and Lubey's journey towards discovering the
truth behind the death of Larry Keller. The overall plot, of "All My Sons" coincides with
abandonment of Larry and the introduction of romance between his girl and his brother. Eventually
all the characters kindle a variance of dispense and chaos that provokes the suicide of Joe Keller. Joe
Keller (Aaron LeDay) is a successful business man who had the ambition to preserve his family and
legacy, although being accused of murdering 21 individuals. Kate Keller (Bethany DuMond)
inability to grief and accept the death of her son causes a disruption between the...show more
content...
Overall, all the actors were credible except maybe Bert (Harrartine) he was a young toddler which
caused the lines to be a bit forced as well as Sue's (Rowland) character. The actual conversion of
the words to actions was impeccable, the actors used many skills to distract us from reality but
still informs us about guilt, responsibility, and deception. The designer responsible for the set in
"All My Sons" was Bryan Stevenson and Angela Inman. Stevenson and Inman only used one
specific setting, that being the yard of the Keller's. The set was proportion accurately and
immensely reflected a true suburban area. A prop that Stevenson and Inman used to symbolize the
past was the grape juice George (Krumm) loved so dearly. Another set piece notably remarked was
the small gazebo liked prop located at the edge of the stage. Stevenson and Inman used the structure
to allow Chris (Moqute) and Ann (Adams) to confess their internal love for each other. The designer
credible for the lighting was Bryan Stevenson. The lights were appropriately used to distinctively
identify the characters, and to emphasize their actions. Stevenson used lighting to transition from the
first act to the second. He also influences the quality of mood by focusing the light towards the
characters, and by using the lighting design to show time and place. Sharon Miller was the costume
designer for the play "All My Sons". The costumes accordingly represented by the time frame and
uses the

All My Sons Critical Essay
All my Sons – Critical Essay
'All my sons' written by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play which shows actions and consequences and
morality and studies the theme of idealism verses realism, social responsibility and the American
dream. This play takes place after World War II, in the year 1947. The play shows conflict between a
Father and a son and how quickly a family can fall apart following a serious revelation. Arthur Miller
uses techniques such as characterization, stage directions and a delayed climax to show the conflict
between the different characters throughout the play and to help the audience understand the main
themes indicated throughout the play.
Arthur Miller makes effective use of the setting to hint at a sense of privacy...show more content...
He also doesn't believe life needs to be inspiring. But his son Chris has a contrasting personality.
He is a listener and a loyal man to his family and friends. Chris is very idealistic which one of the
main themes in the play is. He admires his Father and does have a good relationship with him and
one day, would take over the business from him although Chris doesn't particularly want to. We
first see a hint of Joe Keller's personality in the first act when he refuses to read the news section in
the newspaper. We presume he's doing this to avoid all the bad news about the secret that he is
keeping from everyone.
One occurring theme throughout the play would be the 'American Dream' being when one goes
from poor to rich by working hard for it or the 'Distorted American Dream' by doing anything,
primarily bad to become rich and great. We see this mainly in Joe Keller's character, who considers
himself to be a family man and does what is best for his family. Keller sacrifices other parts of the
American Dream for simple economic success. He has given up part of his basic human decency
to have a wealthy and a successful family life. We find out how he did this later on in the play and
why Miller shows his opinions on the stupidity of the American

Theme Of All My Sons By Joe Keller
There is nothing ruthless about Joe, no hint of the robber baron in his make up , his ambitions are
small a comfortable home for his family, a successful business to pass on to his sons, but he is not
completely fastidious in achieving his goals.
Joe Keller is the most important character in the play, All My Sons.
Miller who wrote All My Sons with human understanding but moral sinew as well as dramaturgy
summarised his theme, John Gossner says as, "the responsibility of man to society or the
responsibility to the world and outside his home as well as in his own home".
Joe Keller is a social, amiable man with a strong sense of humour.
Indeed, Joe Keller strikes us as an eminently social man with an amiable nature.
When, soon afterwards,...show more content...
After having been confronted by Chris with his guilt and his responsibility in the death of Larry as
well as other young pilots, Joe begins to realise his guilt and grows a sense of disillusionment with
money which he has earned with such a hard labour, for the sake of his family.
Joe listened Chris realises Larry's letter.
Joe Keller said with broken heart, "They were all my sons" (89).
Thus, the exposure of his guilt in the supply of defective cylinder heads, and of the fact of his
being responsible for the suicide committed by Larry and the death of 21 young pilots whom he
comes to acknowledge as his own sons, pains Joe very much.
Joe Keller is a moving character whose place in All My Sons is quite important.
Chris Keller, son of Joe Keller, becomes a prototype of a person having moral values of living life.
While his father regards the family as the biggest or most important thing in life, he puts the society
or humanity as a whole on a higher plane than the individual or the family.
Joe Keller just told Annie that he would be prepared to give a well paid job in his business to
Annie's father after that man's release from

Life is full of surprises and people never know what will happen, however; the main question is
how will Joe Keller, the main character, respond to life's hardships. In the play, "All My Sons" by
Arthur Miller there are several accounts where the father Joe Keller lied to his family for
committing a horrid crime. Joe's sons had no idea of his father's crime and that is why at the end
the book shifts to a negative, sad, disheartening tone. This play demonstrates guilt and blame, lies
and deceit, morality and ethics, justice, and judgement. It proves the themes by key events such as
Joe lying to his sons with the lies and deceit topic, judgement is when Joe has to own up to his crime
with his family, and lastly is morality and ethics is...show more content...
Lies and Deceit was among one of the other themes in this play because of one character, Joe
Keller. Joe used deceit countlessly in this play by covering his tracks without any suspicion. Joe
had developed a characteristic that made him normal in the eyes of the people in his life. His
family loved him to death and they had no idea that Joe was the kind of man to do what he did.
For him to develop that image of himself is just scary because any criminal can do that to innocent
people and they can just be normal in their eyes. Therefore, Joe was a walking criminal that got
away and was associating with innocent people (the Keller Family).
Morality and Ethics was another theme of the play portrayed by Arthur Miller. Morality is
something essentially defines a person and truly brings out what they believe in, what they think
is correct, and other people qualities. Morale is what makes a person act the way they do. For
Joe to come off as a person with a great morale, shows how clueless the rest of society is in this
play. This connects to real life situations because sometimes society can be clueless and have no
idea what is going on in the world. Being clueless to what is going on in the world is the worst
because there can be people that you know and love turn out to be criminals. However, walking
criminals are people who develop a great persona and prove to other people that they are good

All My Sons : The Influence of Larry Essay
All My Sons : The Influence of Larry
In the book All My Sons, Larry has a big influence on the play. He is part of many of the problems
shown in the book. Larry was Joe Keller's older son and was reported missing three years before
the time when the play is set. One of the first things mentioned is that Larry's tree had been broken
down by a gust of wind. You find out that the tree, being Larry's tree really meant something to the
family as Frank says "What'd Kate say?" this shows that it symbolised something important. Larry
plays an important part even though he doesn't show up at any point in the play.
Larry was Ann's boyfriend and they were about to get married when
Larry went missing in the war. Ann then fell in love...show more content...
The mother is completely obsessed about Larry and how he is going to appear again. She forces
everyone to agree with her that he's not dead, but Chris and Keller think the total opposite. This
creates a family problem Keller's wife wants everyone to believe he is alive even though they
don't think he is. In the end this causes a fight were the mother starts acting madly and seems to
preach out what she feels as she says "Till he comes; for ever and ever till he comes!" she seems
to tell it as if It was from the bible and everyone has to believe it and stick to what she thinks or the
whole family will fall apart. But one of the main role of Larry's influence is that the fact whether
his father killed him or not holds together the whole family. The situation is like a thin frail shell
that can break very easily and it does. Joe and Ann's father are accused of shipping out cracked
cylinder heads in the war this killed 21 people. Joe was found innocent while Ann's father was sent
to jail. But it was the other way round. Joe was guilty and Ann's father was innocent. Kate knows
this so she has an agreement with Joe that if she says he's innocent Joe has to back her up in
thinking that Larry was still alive, because if
Larry

Examples Of Archetypes In All My Sons
Joe keller
The Author can describe characters in many ways and they usual do that. In the novel/play Arthur
Miller all my sons the character Chris looks up to his dad and looks at him for leadership and he
respects his dad and loves him.The way Joe keller's family views him is he is a trustworthy man and
would sacrifice himself for his family. He has always worked hard in life so his family could have a
good life and he always puts his family first. In Arthur Miller's play All My Sons Characters are
developed through the use of archetypes such as Joe Keller as the martyr.
Joe Keller is described as a martyr. The martyr can be depicted as a charismatic leadership ,sacrifices
himself for the good of others that they may live. Joe is the father of Chris and Chris has always
looked up to his dad his whole life but around this part of the play Chris finds out what his father
has done "it was too late. The paper, it was all over the front page, twenty–one went down, it was too
late" (Miller 420). All the respect the leadership that Chris had for his father was gone at this point
he had lost it all when he found out his was the one that new about the cylinder heads he knew
everything. Joe is reading a letter from Larry that shows the reason for...show more content...
Joe is respected by his son Chris throught the story but when chris finds out that his dad knew
about the broken cylinder heads and he still shipped them out he lost the respect for him. Joe
found out about Larry's death and when he knew the real reason why he ended his life and Joe
understood what Larry meant by the letter he couldn't live with himself after knew found out what
Joe did. The way the author describes the characters in this novel is he used archetypes most stories
use these to mold story ideas most books follow the same archetypes they model their stories with
theses archetypes and this author is one of

Throughout the tragedy All My Sons, Kate Keller holds tightly to the idea of her son Larry being
alive; however, when his death is revealed to her, she is forced to face the truth and a katharsis is
created. Unlike the other two tragedies, there is pity but not a true purging of that feeling. Kate
(Mother) has not seen her son in three years, yet she does not accept that he is gone. She plants an
apple tree in his memory, and the apples still cling to in the summer– like her clinging to the
existence of Larry. "But why did that happen the very night she came back?... Look at it; look...
Believe with me Joe. I can't stand all alone," Kate pleads (Miller 22). Kate does not want to
believe her son is dead, which invokes pity on the reader. However, Kate does not want to let go
of him because if he was dead, it could possibly be her husband's, Joe's, doing. In the end of the
play, the reader learns of Steven, Joe's partner, being wrongfully accused of causing the death of
twenty pilots because of cracked airplane cylinders. Joe, who truly committed the crime, had an
alibi that he was sick so he was not able to go and fix the cylinders that killed the pilots. Kate
knows Joe did the crime, "He hasn't been laid up in fifteen years..." she expresses, going against
Joe's alibi (Miller 65). Joe corrects Kate however, and this moment hints at the fact the Kate is
aware of Joe's actions. Joe never confesses his mistake and continues with his life. Holding on to
Larry is like holding onto

All My Sons Greek Analysis
Arthur Miller–the author of All my Sons, The Crucible, and Death of a Salesman–was born in 1915
in New York City. He lived through the Great Depression and both World Wars. A self
–proclaimed
modern tragedian, Miller says he looks to the Greeks for inspiration, especially Sophocles (the
author of Oedipus the King). Miller elevates "the common man's failures, his anguish, and his
family relationships" to the magnitude of a tragic hero (Galvin). All my Sons is a great example of
how Miller uses the six elements described by Aristotle to create modern American tragedies that
reflect ancient Greek tragedies like Oedipus the King and Antigone. Plot: Miller chooses to start the
plot late into the actual story. Like in Aristolian or climatic...show more content...
Character: According to criteria for distinguishing the tragic Greek protagonist from central
characters, the protagonist should be "a noble person who commits an act resulting in profound
suffering the affects him personally, his family, and the state. Through this suffering he attains
self–awareness and knowledge of what he has done. As a result of this new understanding, he
gains the wisdom and the power to restore equilibrium." The play should also end when the
protagonist has achieved or failed to achieve his goal. Keller fits this description as he drives the
action of the play in his need to keep his past actions a secret. He tries to butter up his old partner
by offering him a job after he gets out of jail and tries to reconcile with George by offering to talk
to his attorney friends. His actions of offering to go to dinner for the family and Ann serve as a
need for everyone to be on his side. He has committed the act that has made his wife lose a son,
his son lose a brother, and his business partner lose his dignity. Many families' sons died because
of him and so affected the whole community. The play ends when Keller has discovered that
Larry's ultimatum was Keller's life or his own. He has gained the knowledge of equilibrium is his
own death since the family's dignity is lost if he is still unpunished. After the climax and
anagnorisis, very little falling action occurs and so leaves little debate for

How does Arthur Miller show that the American Dream has become perverted in 'All my Sons'Вґ?
Do you think Miller is totally against the concept? Or just what it had become in his time? "Seven
Deadly Sins: Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Science without humanity
Knowledge without character Politics without principle Commerce without morality Worship
without sacrifice." Mahatma Gandhi 'The social, economical and educational equal rights for all
citizens'. The previous line summarizes the definition people give of what they understand as the
American Dream. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the American Dream corresponds to 'the ideal
by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest...show more
content...
In Miller words Keller is 'a heavy man of stolid mind and build, a business man these many years,
but with the imprint of the machine–shop worker and boss still upon him' (Act 1, Page 3). It is
interesting to note that Keller is not described as a family guy, even though the play tells the
story of the Keller family. This is because, as a business man, he probably did not spend a lot of
time at home, and that is why he is regarded more like a business man instead of a family guy. For
Joe Keller, the factory, the money and the business were first, and with this, he justifies his
actions as well. The day of the incident of the faulty engine parts, Joe Keller decided to ship the
parts thinking about money, and not about the consequences. Due to his irresponsibility, the
consequences become bigger and his son Larry crashes his plane and die because one of the
faulty engine parts, were installed in his plane. Moreover, Larry does this on purpose and he
writes the following on a letter to Ann: 'I'm going out on a mission in a few minutes; they'll
probably report me missing. If they do, I want you to know that you mustn't wait for me' (Miller,
Act 3, Page 90). Towards the end of act three, Keller finally has to face the Larry's judgement,
through the letter, and Chris'. As he is incapable of doing so, he decides to kill himself, avoiding the
blame once again.

Certain literary works possess a unique quality in which themes are intertwined with the author's
personal experiences in order to convey a message that is realistic and tangible. Arthur Miller's
masterpiece, All My Sons, reflects the struggles and sacrifices that the working class endured in
trying to keep the America Dream alive. A life of prosperity and security was everyman's dream, and
Miller's childhood was nothing but prosperous until the Great Depression struck and left his family
and many people destitute. With the Great Depression serving as the imposing backdrop of his
teenage years, and the Second World War that followed, Arthur Miller'sAll My Sons is not only a
reflection of the time, but it is a testament to the struggles...show more content...
This area eventually became the model for the setting of the play, All My Sons. During his middle
teen years, Miller never forgot the hopelessness that overtook his father and the tensions it produced
between his parents. The loss of personal security at such a crucial point in his own development
inbred Miller with a deep–rooted sensitivity to the impact of an idividual's helplessness in the face
of one's sense of self and family relationships. "Seeing once prosperous people on the streets
begging affected Miller deeply" (Rosefeldt and Shuman 1). He felt it was a tragedy of a
generation of people who blamed the failure on themselves. According to Miller, he felt the
Depression was the deterioration of a capitalist system of government. "The Depression was a
wholesale social catastrophe that fell indiscriminately on vast sectors of American society"
(Kennedy 172). The psychological effect the Depression had on a family caused a loss of respect
for the bread winner as well. In an interview with one jobless father, his worries are clearly
revealed when he states, "'I wore the pants in this family, and rightly so. During the Depression, I
lost something. Maybe you call it self–respect, but in losing it, I also lost the respect of my children,
and I'm afraid that I am losing my wife'" (Kennedy 165). Such fears and

Character Analysis Of All My Sons
CONTEMPORARY WORK Joe Keller is a tragic hero and protagonist of Arthur Miller's 1947
play, All My Sons. He is an uneducated, yet successful businessman trying to make a better life
for his family. As soon as the play starts, Keller is stunned that the tree planted in memory of his
dead son Larry has fallen. However, he is worried that his wife will be upset because she does not
want to accept that their son is dead. In turn, Joe likes to support his wife in this regard since this
will keep their secret buried and they will not have to admit blame for Larry's death. He is the
proud man that made a bad decision, one that cost the life of his son and many other soldiers in
World War II. Joe has convinced himself that the decision was for his family; however, his family
is ultimately destroyed by his immortal decision. He is a dedicated man that grew up poor that
wanted to make a better life for his family. Nevertheless, his choice was driven more by survival
and his building a legacy, than it was out of greediness. To Joe Keller, nothing is more important
to him than his family, and his moral duty to the world comes after his responsibilities to Kate,
Chris, Larry and his dead son. Keller lets his friend and partner take the blame for a decision that
he forced him to make, which left him imprisoned for many years. When the truth is revealed and
exposed, Joe is confronted by his son and the guilt is too much for him and he kills himself. The
initial conflict comes at the beginning of the play when the tree planted in memory of the
Keller's son Larry is struck down by lightening. Added to the conflict is the arrival of Ann Deever,
who is the fiancГ© of Larry the Keller's dead son. Ann is being asked to the home by their other
son Chris. This will create a rapid explosion of deeply buried guilt, and feelings that the Keller's
wanted to forget. Joe has existed for years repudiating his liability for the wrongdoing that had
convicted his friend Steve Deever. The struggle continues as Chris tells his dad that he is going to
ask Ann to marry him, and was told that his mother will not allow it since she believes that Larry is
still alive. The entrance of Ann's brother George Deever who is a lawyer begins to upset the

All My Sons Theme Of Family
The themes of family and responsibility can be found in both All My Sons and What's Eating
Gilbert Grape. However, while All My Sons show the dark, selfish side of humanity through
portraying these themes, What's Eating Gilbert Grape shows the glory of human nature. The theme
of family portrayed in the two texts can be further divided into two parts: filial love and family
conflict. Filial love in All My Sons can be shown by Joe Keller and Chris Keller's attempts of
getting Kate Keller to forget about her dead son, Larry, so that she can move on and lead a new
life. Joe and Chris also display immense care towards Kate and comfort her when she has a
nightmare about Larry, which shows how much of a close–knit family they are. However, Joe and
Chris's concern about Kate's inability to move on from...show more content...
In All My Sons, Joe Keller lack social responsibility as he knowingly ships out faulty parts
knowing full well that his actions could lead to the deaths of the pilots. Additionally, he fails to
take responsibility for his mistake by framing Steve Deever. The guilt that is a result of his
irresponsible actions s borne by him and his wife, Kate Keller. Kate knows about Joe's mistake
but keeps it a secret to keep her family together, so in a way she just just as responsible as Joe
Keller for the deaths of those twenty one pilots and her son. Joe starts to feel ashamed of his
despicable actions after the truth is revealed to his son, Chris, and he is devastated after finding
out that he was partly, if not directly, responsible for Larry's suicide. Joe is too afraid to face
reality and take responsibility for what he had done by going to jail, so he decides to kill himself.
The Kellers' lack of social responsibility show how deluded and selfish they are, and they ultimately
pay the price with their

Examples Of Selfishness In All My Sons
People Are Selfish It is said that 70% of the American population is classified as being selfish.
The author of All My Sons, Arthur Miller, reveals that most people really do not care about
others. In the play All My Sons, there is much conflict centered around one family relating to the
ideas of marriage, death, and lying. The character, Joe Keller, represents an image of how most
people do not care about others because he is very selfish. Joe's selfishness are shown through how
he blames others, and tries to cover up his mistakes, rather than owning up to them. This
interpretation is important because it makes the reader think of how they act, and if they would be
that 70% of the American population that is considered selfish. First, I will explain how Joe acts
selfish by blaming others. First, Miller shows how Joe acts selfish through how he blames others. In
the contents of the play, Joe tends to blame Steve, his previous business partner, for the majority of
his problems. Throughout the play Steve is in jail because Joe blamed him for manufacturing, and
distributing all of the defective plane parts that eventually lead to the death of twenty–one innocent
pilots. Miller is insisting that, Joe was indeed responsible for the manufacture, and led Steve to take
the repercussions of this action, when Joe states, ". . . the guy [Joe] who sold cracked cylinder
heads to the Army Air Force; the guy who made twenty–one P–40's crash in Australia.". (Miller, 30)
Joe then

Examples Of Idealism In All My Sons
Thus, Joe says to Chris that it is impossible to drive out from Kate's mind the notion that Larry is
still alive.
In the play, we find only one son Chris appearing physically, whereas Larry is merely referred to
because he is already dead by the time the play opens.
He says to Chris that he has done everything for Chris.
In fact, Joe Keller is mistakenly over concerned with his personal responsibility or his responsibility
towards his society or country as whole.
In All My Sons the character of Joe Keller has been presented by Miller with social and
psychological concerns.
Joe Keller's thinking was the outcome of social mischief.
He says to his son Chris, that he is sixty one years old and it is not sure when would he get another
chance...show more content...
Joe is the head of the Keller family, and the welfare of his family is his sole concern.
Another larger issue treated in All My Sons is related to the consideration of the relative importance
of personal responsibility and social responsibility.
An individual may be responsible to himself and his family; but he should also feel responsible
towards the society.
In owning the responsibility towards his family or his sons, which impels him to earn money by
dishonest means, Joe Keller seems to disown his social responsibility.
When Joe talks about his business and tells Chris that he committed the dishonest deed for him,
Chris retorts to him : The protagonist in this play is a manufacture or industrialist by the name of
Joe Keller.
Joe Keller belongs to the affluent class of society; and therefore he differs from the ordinary kind of
human beings who constitute the majority in every country.
As for outer conflict, we have a confrontation between Chris and his father over Chris's desire to
marry Annie who was engaged to marry Chris's brother,

All My Sons Essay
Life is full of many hard decisions that people have to take, often on the spur of the moment.
Some we get right others turn horribly wrong. Joe Keller, the tragic hero of Arthur Miller's play
All My Sons, was no different. His whole life was dedicated to his family and their well being but all
his plans were undone by one fatally flawed decision.
The audience can relate to Joe and feel sympathy for him because he was a good man who did many
great things for his family and in the end paid the ultimate price. Towards the end of the play, Joe's
son Chris anguishes over the fatally flawed decision made by his father, thus eliciting the sympathy
of the audience. However, this is not enough to detract from the audience relating to Joe as a...show
more content...
Joe doesn't have many bad qualities in him the only times the audience do see such qualities is
when he speaks ill of Steve to others like when he says, "I owe him a good kick in the teeth"(Act 2,
p47). However, the audience knows he does not really mean these things but only says them to
cover up his fatal mistake. So we forgive Joe his mistake because as Plutarch, the Delphic priest, said
almost 2000 years ago, "to make no mistakes is not in the power of man " and also because Joe tries
to rectify his mistake by offering to give Steve a good job when he gets out of prison and offering
to help Steve's children.
Joe has spent his life making many decisions most of which appear to have been good decisions
resulting in his family enjoying a comfortable life. The audience admires him for this.
Unfortunately, late one night Joe made a hurried decision, which he believed he could get away
with. The reasons for his decision comes to light near the end of the play, in Act 2, when he tells
Chris why he made that decision, "I'm a business man, a man is in business; a hundred and twenty
cracked, you're out of business, you got a process, the process don't work you're out of business;
you don't know how to operate, your stuff is no good; they close you up, they tear up your contract
what the hell's it to them? You lay forty years into a business and they knock you out in five minutes,
what

All My Sons By Arthur Miller
All My Sons is a play by Arthur Miller which is set after the second world war but brings in
information concerning things that took place during the war. It is about a successful businessman,
Joe Keller, who during the war, in the name of fulfilling his so–called familial obligations, fails to
recognise the importance of society when making decisions as he is blinded by lust for money
(Ternate, 2016) and his strong desire to save his business for his son to take over. This review aims
to describe and give personal responses to the book. Arthur Miller's All My Sons, 'explores a man's
possible obsession with family and how he uses it to justify his wrongdoings'.
Arthur Miller is considered one of the greatest American playwrights of the 20th century. He was
born on the 17th of October 1915 in Harlem, New York to an immigrant family of Polish and
Jewish descent. His affluent family lost everything in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, so he
worked odd jobs and eventually attended the University of Michigan. All My Sons was a success
when it was published in 1947, running for almost a full year on Broadway and earning the
playwright his first Tony Award for Best Author. He married three times and had four children.
Miller died on February 10, 2005 surrounded by family and friends. He died of heart failure, after
battling cancer and pneumonia, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was 89 years old.
(Biography.com, 2017).
Arthur Miller's inspiration for this play came from his

Essay on Conflict in All My Sons
Conflict in All My Sons
The conflict in the play "All My Sons" in embodied by two different sets of values. The older
generation represented by Joe and Kate strongly believed in family values and Pursue of the
American dream at any cost. In contradiction, Joe and Anne express the younger generation's ethics
and ideals clearly shown in the thoughts of idealism that money is not the most important thing in
life. Even though the younger generation's ideals are sometimes thought of as being irrational and in
conflict with reality, all throughout the play their validity is greater.
Many times in parents–child relationships the parents have a very different view on things than the
child they had raised. Most of these gaps are...show more content...
The readers of the play know that even though Chris thought about it in a moment of weakness he
would not forget his ethics and therefore would never do something that he believes to be wrong.
There is no point of Chris trying to change his mind because the passion he speaks in about these
ideals will never die.
Chris and Anne did not have their own family yet, which was an excuse for the older generation to
contradict them although they knew the difference between right and wrong. In this play the
word "father" to Chris means righteousness and integrity. If one cannot look beyond one's personal
circle they are condemned to an ending that is a tragic moment of realization that may bring an
ending similar to Joe's. Another morality issue, which Chris has to deal with in regards to his
father in taking responsibility. It is possible that Chris would have shown signs of forgiveness if
Joe were to take responsibility for his actions. Instead of doing so once again he was hiding
behind doing good only for the benefits of his inner circle. "There's nothing he could do that I
wouldn't forgive. Because he's my son. Because I'm his father and he's my son." In these words
Keller expresses his own optimism that no matter what he is to do Chris will always understand,
and forgive. That was not the case. If Keller could not forgive himself, why did he believe that Chris
would ever be able to forgive

In the play All My Sons, author Arthur Miller successfully shows the challenges of emotional
journeys to the audience through the character development of businessman, Joe Keller. Miller uses
Keller as a representation of the Americans who suffered from the widespread poverty, despair, and
unemployment following the Great Depression. Joe Keller lies and cheats to achieve ultimate
success for himself and his family, yet in doing so destroys many relationships around him,
particularly with his two sons; Chris and Larry; who died during the Second World War. It is
through the plays slow build and sudden climax, that Miller is able to effectively portray his constant
inner fight with himself in coming to the realisation that his false perception of himself affects those
close to him, and ultimately drawing to a dramatic conclusion and restoration of order.
Throughout the play, the character development of Joe Keller and his materialistic values, is used
by Miller to convey to the audience, the challenges of emotional journeys. At the beginning of the
play, Keller is described by through stage directions to provide insight into Keller's character and
upbringing. "A business man ... with the imprint of a machine–shop worker and boss still upon him"
implies that he has worked his way up from humble beginnings and has succeeded based on merits.
Living through the Great Depression, Joe struggled with a personal poverty and possesses a fear of
reverse in events, thus having economic

All My Sons Essays

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