2/17/2013
Word Count: 575
Question: What does Arthur Miller tell us through the character of Joe Keller in “All My Sons”?
I think that Arthur Miller tells us about responsibility, how we should be responsible and not blame it on other people, also how your responsible, the importance of family, how money affects people and war.
On Page 49 Joe Keller describes the importance of family, he says “see...this is what I mean. you get older and, you want to feel that you accomplished something. my only accomplishment is my son.” this shows how much Joe Kellers family means to him and how his son is the only person he bad he wants to give his son a good life, we also know this because on page 69 he says,
Your a boy what could I do, I’m in business, a man is in business; a hundred and twenty cracked your out of business; you got a process, the process don’t work your out of business, you don't know how to operate, your stuff is no good; they close you up, they tear up your contracts?
This quote shows how much Joe Keller tries to show his son that he did it because he was scared they would take his business from him, he also tries to justify what he did by saying that he did it for his son that he did it for him, we finally know this because he says “You lay forty years into a business and they knock you out in five minutes, what could I do, let them take forty years, let them take my life away? I never thought they’d install them. I swear to God.” this clearly shows he does not want to take full responsibility for what he did instead he blames it on other people by saying “ I never thought they’d install them” blaming other people saying they should have spotted the cracked cylinder heads this clearly shows how he tries to dodge his responsibilities and put them on other people.
Arthur Miller try’s to tell us about responsibility through the character Joe Keller we know this because on page 77 he says “I could live a quarter a