When parents don’t live up to ideals their children have learned at home or which the children have acquired from the outside world, there can be conflict. Usually, the resolution is separation or just not discussing those issues. “All My Sons” presents a situation in which the conflict in values deals with issues of life and death Themes and Colors Key. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in All My Sons, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Family and Familial Obligation. Loss and Memory. War, Morality, and Consequences. Wealth and Its Accumulation. Liability, All My Sons Summary and Analysis of Act I. All My Sons takes place in a small American town in August, a few years after World War II. The events of the play occur on a single set, the back yard of the Keller home, where a tree has recently been torn down by a storm. The Kellers are solidly middle-class and have a working-class background
All My Sons Analysis | Arthur Miller | English Summary
Back to Learning Guide. You have nothing to say. Now I say. MOTHER, with no less force, but turning from him: Then let your father go. Chris stands transfixed. MOTHER: Altogether! Do you understand me now? As long as you live, that boy is alive. God does not let a son be killed by his father.
Now you see. Beyond control, she hurries up and into the house. KELLER — Chris has not moved. CHRIS in a broken whisper: Then. you did it? Act II, pp. They are revealed to the audience piecemeal during the play as the effects of the originating events ripple outward and take over the action of the play leading to the crisis and restoration of the moral order, all my sons analysis.
Another way of looking at structure is that the play provides the audience with successive, ever deeper glimpses into the reality that is hidden by appearances.
Or, to put it another way, reality is successively peeled back to reveal the appearance below. Since the world itself operates on the levels of appearance and reality, by bringing together the two worlds of [the] manifest and the hidden, Miller creates a realistic world as it exists today and which cannot be taken at its face value. The dichotomy between things said and done, between what the people appear to be and what they are, characterizes the modern world. The main interest of the play comes from juxtaposition of these paradoxical aspects of the world, all my sons analysis.
Srivastava in Perspectives on Arthur Miller edited by Atma Ram. THE USE OF LANGUAGE: Joe Keller, Chris Keller and Mother are continually asking questions. There are different types of questions. Some are just normal dialog. In addition, Joe Keller uses questions to deflect inquiries from other characters, all my sons analysis. However, on many occasions, the questions are not answered and serve as signals for where the play will go. Here are a few examples.
What significance has that got? What are you talking about? Laugh but there are meanings in such things. She goes to sleep in his room and his memorial breaks in pieces. Look at it; look. I mean if she was sent here to find out something? What is there to find out? What kind of a statement is that to make?
everything decides to happen at the same time. This month is his birthday; his tree blows down, Annie comes. Everything that happened seems to be coming back. I was just down the cellar, and what do I stumble over? His baseball glove. This is unacceptable to Mother because it means that Chris and Ann accept the fact that Larry is dead. When Joe joins Chris in his refusal to live with her neurotic fiction Mother swings into action and destroys Joe.
It is mentioned in Act I and comes back to advance the plot in Act II. Act I, p. He uses it on himself in Act III.
IRONY: Irony is basic to the structure of the play. what the hell did I work for? While Chris bears the name of Christ, it is Larry who dies for the sins of others and in so doing leads both Chris and his father to a deeper moral understanding. Joe Keller makes several ironic statements. Mother cannot stand the game and demands that Joe stop playing it. This is a true statement because Larry killed himself on learning about what Joe did.
Joe claims that the court paper proves his innocence even though the jury convicted him. In fact, by saying this Joe unconsciously incriminates himself, all my sons analysis. No court paper is necessary. The names of the characters: Chris is short for Christopher, a name derived from Christ.
Sue Dr. Act II, p. Arthur Miller was clearly thinking about Jesus when he wrote this play. Joseph was the father of Christ. See comment above and Chris himself refers to Christ in Act II, p. The stage directions constantly refer to her as Mother.
One reason is that this character is forced into compromises that rob her of her purity. And that is what Ann represents, the graciousness in life that the Keller children are seeking, first Larry and then Chris. In the Keller home, according to the game that Joe plays with the neighborhood children, the jail is located in the cellar of the Keller home. Reading newspapers: Most people all my sons analysis the paper for news about political and social events in their community and the world.
Chris reads only the book reviews but never the books. The apple tree: The play begins with a discussion of an apple tree planted in memory of Larry that was snapped in half by a storm the night before.
It is Chris who drags the downed part of the tree out of the back yard, just as it is Chris who pushes the idea that he will marry Ann, which forces Mother to face the fact that Larry is dead. The storm: The storm the night before the play occurs the very night that Ann comes. It blows down the tree that represents Larry. It foretells the storm that will wreck the Keller family. See, Act All my sons analysis, p. This is a symbol of the upside down world of the community in which a man who pulled a fast one to avoid being punished for causing the deaths of 21 men is a respected pillar of the community.
Here are some all my sons analysis. I had two sons, now I got one. It changed all the tallies. In fact, the war is soon to change his life in more ways than he suspects, all my sons analysis.
Sit down, stop being mad. You want to live? You better figure out your life. And he puts a bullet through his head. Well, all my sons analysis, there is more and it comes with the Keller family armageddon. SETTING THE SCENE: The First Act is the morning of a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. The human interactions of the day begin as a peaceful August Sunday in suburbia. However, soon, a complication enters when All my sons analysis insists on marrying Ann.
The Second Act takes place as twilight falls. The scene shows that the story which will unfold is different from the Greek and Shakespearian tragedies.
Setting the play in the Keller backyard is a statement by Miller that he is creating a modern tragedy. The first pages of Act I are exposition, all my sons analysis. The plot starts to move when Chris sits Joe down and reveals his plans to marry Ann. Miller and his plays have been the recipient of many awards including the Tony Award, all my sons analysis Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Awards. PBS Web Page on Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was born in in New York City.
His father owned a coat manufacturing company and the family led a comfortable life until the stock market crash of His father had speculated heavily in the stock market and the business was hit hard by the Great Depression.
Miller put himself though school at the University of Michigan by working odd jobs. He graduated in with a major in English. Upon graduation, Miller turned down a job as a screenwriter for 20th Century Fox to begin all my sons analysis artistic career as a playwright for the Federal Theater Project.
All My Sons Arthur Miller - Arthur Miller All My Sons
, time: 1:33:59All My Sons Act 1 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts
Jun 01, · All My Sons Analysis T he Keller's tree symbolizes their connection to Larry. When a storm blows the tree over, the connection breaks, and the All My Sons Summary and Analysis of Act I. All My Sons takes place in a small American town in August, a few years after World War II. The events of the play occur on a single set, the back yard of the Keller home, where a tree has recently been torn down by a storm. The Kellers are solidly middle-class and have a working-class background Themes and Colors Key. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in All My Sons, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Family and Familial Obligation. Loss and Memory. War, Morality, and Consequences. Wealth and Its Accumulation. Liability,
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