Preview

All My Sons

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1125 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
All My Sons
Battle Scars
Where there is conflict, there are always victims that remain strongly impacted. Every human who has stepped foot on this earth has been victimized by something, whether it be painful or pleasant. Arthur Miller’s American tragedy, All My Sons, deals with the American Dream of material wealth leading to contentment. This drama was written so that every character became a victim of loss in some way or form. The conflict that put these normal, everyday citizens into terrible circumstances was war. Although World War II was a victory for America, the victory brought many losses and sacrifices as revealed in the Keller family members Kate, Chris, and Joe.
While she did not have to behold the horrors of the war with her own eyes, Kate Keller was scarred just as much, if not more, than her husband, Joe, and her son, Chris. Kate had lost her second son, Larry, in battle, and like a typical mother would, searched for him everywhere and refused to believe that he was gone for good. The falling of Larry’s memorial tree during an overnight storm did not help much with the nightmares and constant depression either, and in fact made them worse and more consistent. Kate was not prepared to accept her son’s death because it would force her to also admit to her husband’s guilt for “murdering him”, perceived when she says to Chris, “Your brother’s alive, darling, because if he’s dead, your father killed him” (418). Joe had knowingly sent faulty machinery out to the army which resulted in the deaths of 21 pilots. Even though Larry ended up not being one of those pilots, he committed suicide after hearing of his father’s crime, and Kate simply couldn’t come to reality with that. Her pitiful faith in Larry’s life is seen as she tries to create distance between Chris and Larry’s fiancée Ann; “I think her nose got longer” (371). Larry’s detectable death has brought Kate to a state of emotional instability, presented to readers through what is stated by other characters



Cited: Miller, Arthur. All My Sons. Six Great American Plays. New York: Dell Publishing, October 1967, 354-433. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Miller colors the play with dialect, or specific regional speech. Pick out some examples of dialect in this act.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crow Lake

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To begin with, Kate Morrison is plagued by the guilt of her bother, Matt’s broken dreams. As a consequence, the guilt causes many emotional problems in her life. For instance, the constant mental pressures of guilt causes Kate’s “crisis” during one of her zoology lectures. “Because if things had turned out differently, it would have been Matt standing in front of them” (Lawson, pg. 200). During a lecture, Kate has a flashback about a childhood visit to the ponds with Matt. It is clear that Kate feels guilty for leaving Matt, who was her idol as well as her brother, behind. He taught her not only to see nature but to observe and understand it; and Kate feels that it is injustice that she should be teaching others when Matt taught her “everything” she knows. Furthermore, Katie is always in an emotional battle with her own mind due to the guilt she felt for Matt’s situation. “I had betrayed him, that was how I felt” (Lawson, pg. 201). Even though she knows Matt had caused his own demise, deep inside her mind, she feels that it was her own fault. This feeling causes her to fight with herself. Her situation shows that Kate could never come to terms with what had happened to her family and what had become of the Morrison dream. Finally, Kate’s guilt causes her to lose communication with Matt, which hurts their relationship. “What are you actually researching Kate? I don’t think you’ve ever said” (Lawson, pg. 274). It is plainly obvious that Matt is interested in…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pet Milk Analysis

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The author appeals to the emotions of his audience when discussing the main character’s feelings for Kate. At first, the narrator expresses regret with Kate, in simple things like not being able to see her ‘lovely knees’ often because of her work’s uniform and the feeling that while the two of them were still together, he could feel them drifting apart. Not necessarily because of their individual feelings, but because he knew that they wouldn’t be able to stay together when the time came for them to follow their plans for the future. He describes his contradicting feelings in that talking about their plans made them feel…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tom Brenna Speech

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Throughout the book ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’, each character deals with the tragedy in many different ways. Tom becomes depressed and begins to blame himself, he rejects that Dan, his older brother, has committed a crime and is sent to jail, ‘didn’t they realise we weren’t like everyone else here?’ (Page 134). Kylie, Tom’s younger sister, become rebellious and felt that everyone in their new town, Coghill, would have found out their secret eventually and it wasn’t fair to keep it hidden. ‘That was the thing about my sister, she’d become tough, like I didn’t know her anymore.’ (Page 29). ‘In many ways she’d released me, pushing me into my own fear.’ (Page 190). ‘In some ways, part of me almost admired her guts’ (Page 185). Tess, Tom’s mum, is affected by it the most; she refuses to accept that it’s happened and feels that her son has been ripped away from her. ‘“Well Tess,’ Kath started, “I’m sorry about that, but my son can’t even turn his neck to see his back.”’ (Page 155). She begins to live in denial and won’t talk about it. ‘Come on girlie, don’t be so self indulgent. Life goes on.’ (Page 4). Daniel becomes depressed and realises the consequences of his actions. “He’d been absolutely ripped to shreds. He didn’t sleep, eat, hardly spoke, never smiled. The only thing he did was cry. He cried buckets.” (Page 121).…

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: Bigsby, C. W. E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth Century American Drama: Volume One—1900–1940. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1982.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abigail williams

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cited: Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. McDougal Litell Literature: American Literature. Evanston, IL: McDougal Litell.132-208. Print…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. Print.…

    • 675 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miller, Arthur. “Tragedy and the Common Man.” Miller, Arthur. The Theater Essays of Arthur. Viking Press, 1978. 3-7.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout the history of humanity, there are many examples of horrible and completely hideous crimes. While many of the crimes committed were pushed by the desire for power of some persons (mostly men: Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin and Idi Amin Dada are good examples), others were realized in the name of God, as the ones who planned them say (all the wars among different religions and, more recently, Osama Bin Laden). It is well known that the "big names" of these crimes had a very strong ability to manipulate people. I think that one of the things they were very good at is that they could manipulate many thousands of people to make them accept to be complitely submitted and believe that what they were about to commit was not a crime but something that had to be done. In this essay, we will discuss two crimes that are very similar in the way that the governements in control were very good at directing the population into the ideas they wanted them to believe in, and in having them act the way they wanted them to. The first situation is the witch trials of Salem that took place in the 1690s (as reported by Arthur Miller in The Crucible), and the second is the massive anti-communism movement that took place in the United-States between 1947 and 1954. By looking at the facts found in the play, and by looking at the history of the anti-communism movement , we will make the parrallels between these two major crimes against freedom of expression.…

    • 2412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Things They Carried

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the fictional novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, scenes regarding the death of a comrade or an enemy soldier seem to convey and accentuate two unifying themes: redemption and encumbrance. While some characters, such as “the young soldier” who is evidently O’Brien, endeavor to find some sort of closure and salvation, others, including Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, blame themselves for the demise of their comrade-at-arms and cannot relieve themselves of the painful memories. Furthermore, they carry this emotional and psychosomatic “burden,” comprised of anguish, trepidation, fondness, and longing after the war has ended and throughout their lives.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ayn Rand once said “A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity. It means that a lie sadly has enough power to cause corruption in a society. It also suggests that a lie perhaps be strong enough to destroy even a high ranking person from a society. If you tolerate lies dominating people around you, you’ll eventually be a victim of them.…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. 1952. Reprint. New York City : Penguin Plays , 1976. Print.…

    • 1378 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arthur Miller’s career started off a bit shaky with his first real play “The Man Who Had All the Luck” because the show closed “after just four performances and a stack of woeful reviews.” But six years later “’All My Sons’ achieved success on Broadway, and earned him…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miller, Arthur. “The Crucible.” The Language of Literature: American Literature. Arthur N. Applebee. Evanston: McDougal Littell. 164-240. Print.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Personal tragedies occur to everyone whether he or she is rich or poor. Many people face tragedies in their lives and they have a deep depression which they have to deal with. If they think about it every day it will only make it worse. Families who lose their love ones especially in war experience great pain and grief which take a long time to heal. Tragedies can occur anytime anywhere. Humans have to realize the importance of losing their loved one. In the book “Things They Carried” the character Lavender and his group lose a lot of his soldiers during the Vietnam War and Lt.Cross faces a personal tragedy when lavender gets shot because he feels it’s his fault. In today’s world people are dying everywhere but especially in the Middle East where about 4,000 American Soldiers have died in the war and also many civilians are being killed. The families of the deceased American Soldiers have to suffer the tragedies…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics