If you are a fan of drama you just owe it to yourself to watch the play, All My Sons, by Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York, in 1915. He was winner of Drama Critics Award for best new play in 1947. All My Sons explores the father-son relationships of the 50s and the role of money. Through the character, their interactions and the events, the play showcases struggles between individuality and the social responsibility. It highlights the conflict of Joe Keller when he had to face the fact that he had to choose between his duty to social and himself.
In this play Joe Keller sells cylinder heads that are defective to the military and then basically forces his partner (Steve Deever) to take the fall for him.
Joe is the main character of the play; he grew up through the U.S Great Depression. This tough environment thought him that you can only survive and provide for your family by sacrificing your sense of responsibility.
You lay forty years into a business and they knock you out in five minutes, what could I do, let them take forty years, let them take my life away? This quote shows that Joe is where he is through the difficulties.He learned to become cautions about any money he earned. Joe Keller puts survival of his family above his regard for the needs of others. Joe lives with his wife, Kate, and his son, Chris. Joe does his best to keep his family in comfort and happiness at all times, but the thing they suffer is the loss of their son/brother Larry who went missing in action. Poor Kate is in state of denial and holds on to the fact that her son is still alive. The reason beside holding on to that idea is because if she believes that Larry is dead that means that Joe is the cause of his death since Larry was a pilot in the military. At the end, Chris finally has the courage to confront his father about his crime. When Joe finds out that Kate and Chris thinks that he has to go to prison for his crime, he cries out emphatically, saying High the goddam country is gotta to go if I go. He is explaining that the act of corruption he committed was common in the people during war. He docent want to face his crime because his appearance is more important, so Joe goes inside the house, a gunshot was heard .Joe Keller Killed himself.
In the 1950s America, setting of the play, the American Dream set ideals where freedom includes the opportunity for success, wealth, and higher class in the social hierarchy family. In order to achieve all these requirements, Joe Keller had to work hard and overcame all obstacles in front of him that could risk his success.