“All My Sons”- The Tragic Conflict between Family Loyalties and Social Responsibilities

Year 2015, Volume: 36 Issue: 3, 1025 - 1031, 13.05.2015

Alaeddin Nahvı

Abstract

Abstract. The play “All My Sons” takes its title from the swan-song of Joe Keller, the tragic character in the play. His sens of guilt drives him to suicide, and before taking his life,he refers to his son Larry’s statement that he was ending his life to make amends for the twenty-one pilots, who met their end by using the cracked cylinder heads dispatched from the factory of Joe Keller. Larry’s death brings home to Joe the truth that not only Larry but also those twenty-one pilots were his sons. The major theme of ”All My Sons” is the tragic conflict between family loyalties and the social responsibility. Joe Keller is an ordinary fair-to medium individual whose love for his family is boundless. Being an uneducated man, not given to much reading,he lives in a narrow world consisting of his family and a few neighbors. A confusion of values overwhelms his mind, for he is obsessed with his own happiness and of those he loves, but his son Chris speaks of the universe of people to which he has the responsibility. His personal tragedy triggers from his adherence to the American value system which is antagonistic to social welfare.

Keywords

self-deception, betrayal, guilt, American Dream, responsibility

References

• All My Sons in Arthur Miller’s Collected Plays (New York: The Viking Press, 1967) 120
• Arthur Miller, “The Shadow of the Gods.” American Playwrights on Drama, ed., Horst Frenz (New York: Hill and Wang, 1965) 138. Bigsby,90.
• Frenz (New York: Hill and Wang, 1965) 138. Genesis (4:8-16)
• Harold Clurman, Lies Like Truth: Theatre Reviews and Essays, (New York: Macmillan Press, 1985) 67.Loughlin, 23.
• Richard L. Loughlin, “Tradition and Tragedy in ‘All My Sons,’ The English Record, Vol. XIV, No. 3 (February 1964) 23-27.
• Steven R. Centola, “Bad Faith and All My Sons” in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, 123-33.