In All my sons, characters often invoke money as a reason for relinquishing ideals or hopes. Comment

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In All my sons, characters often invoke money as a reason for relinquishing ideals or hopes. Comment on this statement with reference to the play.

All My Sons was Arthur Miller’s first commercially successful play, and opened at the Coronet Theatre in New York on January, 29 1947. It ran for 328 performances and garnered important critical acclaim for the dramatist, winning him the prestigious New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.”

Through All my Sons, the playwright suggests the ethnical failings of the ‘American dream’. He indicates the flaw with a merely economic interpretation of the American Dream as business success alone.

Miller’s play also represents the failings of a capitalist society, who are willing to sacrifice idealism for economic stability. Miller not only critiques the inability of humans to make moral decisions, but a system that would encourage profit and greed at the expense of human life and happiness.

Joe Keller, the protagonist of the play, is a character that has strived to achieve the American dream, and the material comforts offered by modern American life. He interprets the American Dream as merely business success alone, and in his pursuit of it, relinquishes other parts of the so-called Dream. He sacrifices his human decency and a successful family life when he issues the order for the sale of sub-standard cylinder heads. However Keller can live with his actions because he believes through the selling of the faulty plane parts, he has maintained economic stability (by keeping the business alive) and secured a successful future for his son Chris, ‘I did it for you Chris, the whole dam shooting match was for you’. He has, In short, sacrificed his lifelong hopes of achieving the American dream purely for monetary success.

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It could also be argued that Keller sacrificed Steve, his business partner in order for the business to stay afloat. By blaming Steve for the issuing of the cylinder heads, the business was not shut down, which would have cost Joe and his family, everything. Similarly, Larry’s suicide was as a result of Keller selling the faulty parts, so indirectly, he has sacrificed his son for simple economic stability.  

Chris Keller is described by other characters through out the play as an idealist, although we do not see this trait in action aside from his angry response ...

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