All My Sons Themes - Questionpurs

All My Sons Themes:

Write a short note on the Theme of 'All My Sons.

All My Sons Themes: All of Miller's plays are concerned with large social issues. The theme of All My Sons is the importance of a man's social responsibility. A man generally tends to think of his own interest and of his family's interests, and he does so without paying any attention to the effects of his actions on other people. In the pursuit of his own material gain, and in advancing the material interests of his wife and children, he may even do irreparable damage to society as a whole.

In Miller's play, All My Sons, the manufacturer Joe Keller is such a man. Joe Keller regards his family as his chief interest in life. He has built up his business for his own prosperity and for the prosperity of his family. But a time comes when he has to choose between the interest of his family and the larger interest of his nation; and he chooses the former, with disastrous results. 

All My Sons Themes, Joe Keller's Greed and Selfishness:

Joe Keller and his partner, Steve Deever, had a contract for the manufacture and supply of aeroplane cylinder heads. They kept supplying the much-needed cylinder heads to the Air Force during the war. However, it so happened that one particular batch of cylinder heads, produced by their factory, developed cracks. These

cylinder heads should not have been supplied to the Air Force and should have been withheld. Joe Keller, finding that, by withholding these defective cylinder heads, the factory would suffer a huge financial loss, decided not to withhold them. He instructed his partner, Steve, on the telephone to repair the cracks in the cylinder heads and then to dispatch them to the Air Force which had been sending urgent messages to the factory to expedite the dispatch of cylinder heads that were needed for their P-40 aeroplanes.

In giving these instructions to his partner, Joe Keller had also assured him that he himself would take upon himself the full responsibility for the dispatch of these defective cylinder heads. Joe Keller knew that these defective cylinder heads could prove risky to the air pilots, but he had not realized the enormity of the risk involved. He had not known that these cylinder heads could cause the aeroplanes to crash and kill the pilots.

However, that is exactly what happened. As many as twenty-one air pilots were killed before the defect in the aircraft was discovered. At the trial of the two partners, Joe Keller passed the whole blame to Steve Deever.

The result was that Joe Keller was acquitted, while Steve Deever was sentenced to long imprisonment. Joe Keller' wife knew that Joe Keller was guilty, the neighbours also knew it; and yet Joe Keller was able, by means of a trick, to save his own skin and send his partner to prison.

But the main point here is not that Steve was imprisoned. The main point is that Joe Keller had, because Joe Keller had, because of his greed and selfishness, been responsible for the deaths of as many as twenty-one pilots of the American Air Force at a time when a World War was going on, and when every single pilot's life was precious. 

All My Sons Themes

Chris Keller's Charge against His Father:

The main interest of this play lies in the fact that Joe Keller had evaded his social responsibility in order to maintain his business and the prosperity of his family. When his son Chris Keller discovers his father's guilt, he feels shocked and grieved beyond measure. He asks his father to explain what he had done and why he had done it.

In a state of fury, Chris says to his father: "What did you do? Explain it to me or I'll tear you to pieces." Joc Keller defends himself by saying that he had supplied defective cylinder heads to the Air Force in order to keep his business going. He further says that he had certainly exposed the lives of the air pilots to danger but that he had done so for the sake of Chris.

"Chris, Chris, I did it for you," says Joe Keller. He further says that he had not realized that the aeroplanes would actually crash because of the defective cylinder heads. But Chris says that Joe Keller's action in supplying defective and risky equipment to the Air Force. I had caused many deaths. He then goes on to say that Joe Keller should have thought of the country and not of his son or his family. Chris says further that Joe Keller is worse than an animal, and that he should tear the tongue out of Joe Keller's mouth. 

The Family versus Social Responsibility:

Kate, speaking to her husband, points out to him that he had been wrong in placing the interest of his family above all other things. She tells him that, in Chris' yes, there is something bigger than the family. But Joc Keller maintains that there is nothing bigger in a man's eyes than his family. Thus, here we witness a clash of interests. The theme of the play is the clash or the collision between a man's duty to his family and his duty to the society of which he is a member. 

All My Sons Themes, The Resolution of the Conflict : 

A little later Chris tells his mother and Annie that he is in no position to take any action against his father because he has become a practical man and therefore a coward also. Annie asks him to do what he ought to do. Chris replies that, by now sending his father to jail, he would not be able to bring back to life those air pilots who had been killed on account of the defective equipment supplied by his father to the Air Force.

Joe Keller at this point again tries to defend himself. This time he says that, if he had done a wrong and must go to jail for it, then half of the population of this country should also go to jail because they had all been making money during the war by all kinds of foul and crooked methods. He further says that even in peacetime people adopt all sorts of dishonest methods to make money. He also puts forward the plea that a man cannot become.

Jesus Chris is in this world. Chris thereupon reads out Larry's letter which Larry had written to Annie during the war, and in which Larry had stated his decision to commit suicide because his father had caused the deaths of a large number of air pilots by having supplied defective cylinder heads to the Air Force. And now, at last, Joe Keller realises the enormity and the gravity of his crime.

He realises that the air pilots, who had been killed because of his crime, were his own sons just as Larry was. He then shoots himself to pay with his life for the crime which he had committed. And this is how the conflict in the play is resolved. A man's duty to society has been shown to be greater, higher, and nobler than his duty to himself and to his family.