Rosie Ruzicka

August 16, 2010

JOE KELLER’S GRIEVOUS IDEALISM

Arthur Miller’s post World War II production All My Sons, tells the tragic tale of

a family torn by denial and the American dream. The protagonist of this play is Joe

Keller, a sixty-year-old retired factory owner. While rushing to meet an order for the

military, Joe sent out faulty cylinder heads for use in the war, claiming the lives twenty-

one American pilots. Joe then framed his business partner, Steve Deever, the father of his

late son’s fiancée, in order to escape jail time and—in his skewed rationale—protect his

family. The overwhelming theme of All My Sons, however, is the struggle between

idealism and pragmatism. Until the dramatic events of acts two and three, the Keller

family had been living in a peaceful state of self-deception. Miller examines the morality

of a man who places his idealistic responsibility to his immediate family above his

practical responsibility to the men who rely on the integrity of his work.

Keller has a myopic worldview that allows him to discount his crimes because

they were for the family, and in his mind, for the greater good. While conversing with

Chris, Joes asks, “What the hell did I work for? That's only for you, Chris, the whole

shootin’-match is for you!” (Miller 17). Joe believed that his rightful position in his

society was to be a good husband and a good father, yet he performed horrible acts to

keep his family financially and mentally stable. Even so, this was not a unique mentality.

“Joe Keller is not aberrant, except in the extremity of his crime. He represents a

pragmatism that coexisted with the language and fact of idealism in wartime

America”(Bigsby xii). In Keller’s mind, he was merely protecting his lifestyle, his
American dream, by simply turning a blind eye like many Americans at the time. The

principal contention however is that Keller is wrong in his claim that there is nothing

greater than the family, since there is a whole world to which Keller is connected. To cut

himself off from his relationships with society at large is to invite tragedy of a nature both

public (regarding the pilots) and private (regarding the suicides). All My Sons is a play

about the past. It is inescapable—and in the context of the life of Joe Keller, the past

became something that would drastically shape not only his future, but also the future of

his family. Kate Keller justified her husband’s actions as done for the sake of their sons.

But despite the Keller’s best attempts to forever live in denial, “if one son is not returning

and the other may abandon them, then it stands stripped even of this justification”

(Bigsby xvii). The revelation of truths is evident, and Miller illustrates that the idealistic

flaws of the American dream.

Joe Keller was a man who loved and valued his family very much, and like most

Americans of the 1930s, he was willing to turn an ethical blind eye in order to ensure

prosperity for his family. Unfortunately for Keller, his particular blind eye was a severe

one, an eventually came back to haunt him. Joe destroyed the lives of twenty-one pilots

and more significantly, drove his own son Larry to commit suicide out of shame. The

play communicates different ideas on war, materialism, family, and honesty. However,

the main focus, especially at the play's climax, is the idea of idealism versus personal

responsibility. In particular, Miller demonstrates the dangers of shirking responsibility

then ascribing blame to others. Eventually, Joe Keller lost everything that he lived and

worked for, his personal dignity, the respect of his sons, and ultimately his life.
 WORKS CITED

Bigsby, Christopher. “Introduction.” All My Sons. Arthur Miller. New York; Penguin
Books, 2000. vii-xxvi.

Miller, Arthur. All My Sons. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. Print.