In the play All My Sons, many characters act quickly to what will benefit them. There are many examples, but I will focus on the example of Joe Keller lying about the scandal where his company sold broken parts to the army which ended in a result of 21 dead pilots. He blamed his partner for it, when it was really his decision to go through and give the parts to the army. He kept it a secret all this time, until his partner's daughter Annie came to town. Joe believed that the needs of his family were much more important than the needs of society. So he lied to society to protect his family and his buisness. So when Chris finally finds out his father's big lie, he is very upset. Keller says to him, "Chris, I did it for you, it was a chance and I took it for you. I'm sixty-one years old, when would I have another chance to make something for you? Sixty-one years old you don't get another chance, do ya?" (Miller 70). Keller thought that by protecting his family from scrutiny by lying, he would make it in society. His family was what really mattered to him by keeping the buisness and a good name for them.
I believe that in some ways Joe is right, but in some ways wrong. Yes, you want everything the best for your family, but you shouldn't lie to them. At the end of the day they are your family and you should love them regardless, but there are also some people out there that have a very hard time forgiving. In this incident of Joe's, I probably would have done the same thing, however I would have told my family what I did, and they can decide how they would like to handle that.
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4 comments:
I like the way you said " Keller though that by protecting his family from scrutiny by lying, he would make it in society." I though that you analyzed the quote really well. I also like your idea that family and society should be in balance. nice analysis!
I agree with what you said about Joe. It's good to think of family first, but the way Joe did it was wrong. He should have been thinking of the society in that instance.
I like how you saw both sides of Joe. I think it's interesting that you have an unbiased midset in your writing. I for one did not and took Chris' point of view, but you seem to take Kate's. Nice job and great ideas.
Emily, I really like the first sentence in your blog when you say "many characters act quickly to what will benefit them". I feel like that basically sums up the entire play. All the characters seem to act on rash decisions. The example of Joe Keller represents that first sentence very well. He got so nervous that he acted quickly by making a very wrong decision of sending out the broken parts. If he would have slowed down and thought about it, many lives could've been saved.
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