Set after WWII a relatively happy family goes about their daily business, haunted still by the loss of their son, Larry, 3 years ago. Kate, his mother, is effected the most by this, she clings to the bit of hope that he may still be alive. The son, Chris, wants to marry the family’s old neighbor Ann Deever, who was Larry’s fiancee. The rest of the family is uncomfortable with the idea, if Chris marries Ann then Larry is truly gone. When Ann arrives we see her relationship with Chris, and the rest of the family. Because she grew up with the Keller family it has the background of love and comfort, but there is hostility, especially from Kate, who feels like Ann has betrayed Larry. Kate isn’t the only person against the marriage, George, Ann’s …show more content…
When the war came around they started to sell their mechanical parts to the government to be used in planes. The business partners knew that one batch was faulty, but sold them anyways. Causing 21 pilots to lose their lives. Joe Keller escaped serving time by blaming it all on Deever. The guilt Joe feels from this is intensified, Larry was an Airforce pilot. Ann knows why Larry isn’t coming home, he killed himself. Joe cannot get over his actions, with the wedding becoming a reality he is engulfed in these feelings, unable to cope with it he kills himself. These men weren’t just pilots, they were “All his …show more content…
All my sons was written in 1947, the time of the nuclear family. This play looked at this way of life and tossed it on it’s head. Both the Keller and the Deever had the classical nuclear family. Neither of their families are functional nor happy. This challenges the idea that happiness doesn’t come from a formula. One disfunction of the “nuclear family” is the father role, a father is expected to protect and provide. When Joe sold the faulty parts he didn’t do it to spite the government, nor to purposely kill 21 kids. He did it to provide for his family the money he needed wasn’t to do evil things it was to make his family comfortable. In this Miller explored how money, even with the purest of intents, can cause men to fall. This is a very interesting matter to explore in the 1950’s after the war business began to be good again, and people were taking advantage of all the money that could’ve been