All My Sons Character Analysis

All My Sons Essay One of the major themes of All My Sons by Arthur Miller is the relationship between family, friends, and even society. A closely related topic to this is individuality and how each character has separate goals, ideas, and attitudes towards the other characters and situations in the plot. Arthur Miller once said, “We are all separate people”, and characters from All My Sons, such as Dr. Jim Bayliss, Ann Deever, and Chris Keller, Support this concept. Dr. Jim Bayliss is a doctor in his forties, who is now living next to the Kellers. He is married to his money-obsessed and cynical wife. Sue. Jim is a good neighbor, looking in on Kate when she’s ill, picking up George, and looking for Chris. Jim’s main quality that separates him from the other characters is his lack of independency in his actions. He ultimately his wife’s slave and must conform to her wants, returning home and becoming a practicing doctor after she wished for him to do so. Jim doesn’t make his inner feeling known and makes no judgments of others. He feels lost, and even says, “It’s even hard sometimes to remember the kind of man I wanted to be” (Miller 3.25). Ann is the daughter of Steve Deever, former neighbor of the Kellers, as well as former fiancée of the dead Larry Keller, and the current fiancée of Chris Keller. She returned to live with the Kellers at Chris’ request. Even though she is young, Ann knows what she wants and her display of independency and obtainment of desires is her main characteristic. She turns her back on her father when he was convicted during the business scandal and moved to New York and got a job. During her stay at the Kellers, Ann has no problem going against the denial stricken, fierce, and older Kate, openly saying, “You made Chris feel guilty with me… I’d like you to tell him that Larry is dead and that you know it. You understand me?” (3.86), during one of their arguments over Larry. Ann is the only character throughout the play that