All My Sons2
All My Sons, a play by Arthur Miller, tells predominantly of the story of the Kellers. This play takes place after World War II, in the year 1947. It is a drama of actions and consequences and morality. This theme of actions and consequences is shown after Joe Keller ships out defective engine parts, which ultimately ends in the death of many pilots including that of his own son, Larry Keller, who kills himself in shame of his father' s actions. Joe Keller had two sons, Chris and Larry, who is dead. Chris and his father, Joe, have opposing morals and viewpoints on many of the issues that govern their lives, primarily the issue of the shipment of the defective engine parts. Chris's criticism of Joe and his morals in juxtaposition to his own produces a revelation of Chris's true character and his character flaws. Chris's main criticisms of Joe, his father, chiefly deals with the shipment of the defective engine parts. Joe plays a major role in this play. He is shown as the antagonist, the one who through his bad decisions, ends up killing many innocent pilots who were only defending their country. "I
Flaws in Chris's character are also shown when we examine the love of Chris's life, Annie. It is Chris who, in reaching out for love and a life of his own with Annie, first weakens and destroys the sense of security his father has tried to upkeep for his family. Annie, who has become Chris's fiancee, was previously also Chris's dead brother, Larry's fiancee. One must wonder what kind of morals Chris must have if he wants to marry his deceased brother's fiancee. Chris knows that "I could jail him! I could jail him, if I were human any more. But I'm like everybody (Wells, 6) When Chris says that, "I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father. I can't look you this way. I can't look at myself!" (Miller, 67) "An unwittingly, illuminating admission: he cannot look at his father as no better than most because he cannot look at himself as no better than most, he had never seen his father as a man because he has not wanted to see himself as one." (Gross, 13) (Martin, 9) As Yorks shows in his essay, through Joe's loyalty to his business and his family, Joe betrays the "larger loyalties of the global conflict" [World War II] (21) by shipping out defective engine parts. Joe tries to defend his actions by saying, "Who worked for nothin' in that war? When they work for nothin', I'll work for nothin'...it's dollars and cents, nickels and dimes; war and peace, it's nickels and dimes, what's clean? Half the Goddamn country is gotta go if I go!" (Miller, 67) Joe claims to Chris that almost all the businesses involved in the war, made a profit from it and if that is considered dirty, then nobody is clean. Chris says that is exactly why he is so upset. "I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better. I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father." (Miller, 67) Chris expected his father to be better than most men, and is shamed when he learns of what his father has done. Chris says to his father, "What the hell do you mean, you did it for me? Don't you have a country? What the hell are you? You're not even an animal, no animal kills his own, what are you?" (Miller, 59) Miller, through the title, tries to make us understand that Joe commits suicide as a final recognition of all
Some common words found in the essay are:
Half Goddamn, Rodriguez Page, Annie Chris's, Chris Larry, I'm Miller, War II, Chris Exactly, George Chris, Sons Chris, Chris Miller, father chris, miller 67, rodriguez page, defective engine, arthur miller, chris father, joe keller, shipment defective engine, critical essays, essays arthur, shipment defective, father chris father, house publishers 1988, chris's criticism joe, criticism joe morals,
Approximate Word count = 1492
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
