Chris Keller: Like Father, Like Son?
Workshop in Critical Writing: Drama
Instructor: Ms Eleni Delliou
Date: 19/05/2014
Chris Keller: Like Father, Like Son?
All my sons, by Arthur Miller, could be characterized as a critique to an over zealously capitalistic society. The American Dream, its pursuit and its consequences, is one of the major themes of the play, basically focused on the idealistic conflict between self-interest and moral responsibility towards society. More specifically, the playwright asks us where the boundaries are on securing your family’s well being and happiness. How many lies can someone tell to himself and to his morality? Each of Miller’s characters answers these questions differently.
Chris Keller is demonstrated as the idealist of the play. Initially he is presented as “a man capable of immense affection and loyalty” (Act One). He seems horrified and ashamed that the sacrifices his soldiers did hadn’t changed anything to the rest of the world: “I felt… ashamed somehow. Because nobody was changed at all”. Theoretically he is not a materialist, he feels guilty for his wealth: “I felt wrong to be alive, to open the bank-book, to drive the new car, to see the new refrigerator” (Act One). Practically though, he doesn’t reject any of that and he seems to enjoy his comfortable life. Chris Keller is being described as idealist and honest in the words of the other characters. Ann in Act Two confesses to Sue: “Whenever I need somebody to tell me the truth I've always thought of Chris”. Her brother, George, yells to Chris: “I believed everything because I thought you did”. In the third act, where the awful truth is revealed and Chris is missing, Jim, talking to Kate Keller, thinks of him as a man who “would never know how to live with a thing like that. It takes a certain talent… for lying. You have it, and I do. But not him”.
But why is the reader told about Chris’ honesty and not shown it? Superficially, Chris might be honest but, with a closer look he is not so
Instructor: Ms Eleni Delliou
Date: 19/05/2014
Chris Keller: Like Father, Like Son?
All my sons, by Arthur Miller, could be characterized as a critique to an over zealously capitalistic society. The American Dream, its pursuit and its consequences, is one of the major themes of the play, basically focused on the idealistic conflict between self-interest and moral responsibility towards society. More specifically, the playwright asks us where the boundaries are on securing your family’s well being and happiness. How many lies can someone tell to himself and to his morality? Each of Miller’s characters answers these questions differently.
Chris Keller is demonstrated as the idealist of the play. Initially he is presented as “a man capable of immense affection and loyalty” (Act One). He seems horrified and ashamed that the sacrifices his soldiers did hadn’t changed anything to the rest of the world: “I felt… ashamed somehow. Because nobody was changed at all”. Theoretically he is not a materialist, he feels guilty for his wealth: “I felt wrong to be alive, to open the bank-book, to drive the new car, to see the new refrigerator” (Act One). Practically though, he doesn’t reject any of that and he seems to enjoy his comfortable life. Chris Keller is being described as idealist and honest in the words of the other characters. Ann in Act Two confesses to Sue: “Whenever I need somebody to tell me the truth I've always thought of Chris”. Her brother, George, yells to Chris: “I believed everything because I thought you did”. In the third act, where the awful truth is revealed and Chris is missing, Jim, talking to Kate Keller, thinks of him as a man who “would never know how to live with a thing like that. It takes a certain talent… for lying. You have it, and I do. But not him”.
But why is the reader told about Chris’ honesty and not shown it? Superficially, Chris might be honest but, with a closer look he is not so